The Orissa High Court has granted a stay on the recent All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) circular, which pressed for sweeping changes in the business education space. The AICTE notification dated December 28, 2010 had not only placed a cap on fees charged by AICTE-affiliated MBA colleges across the country, but also made it mandatory for all admission processes to be conducted by the respective state machinery.

What was most shocking about the AICTE circular was that XAT as an entrance exam was barred from the list of approved entrance examinations. The circular stated that only CAT and MAT were to be used as entrance examinations.

The case in Orissa Court was filed by a consortium of b-schools from Orissa and other eastern states. According to P Pal, president of The Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS), the stay (till March 23) is a victory for the business schools. “It means that b-schools can now go ahead with their regular admission processes,” said Dr Pal.

The AICTE notification came as a shock to business schools across the country. Dr Pal said that his association was forced to take legal help to solve the matter. We have had talks with the AICTE and the Human Resources Development minister Kapil Sibal but there was no progress on that front. As AIMS, we are going to file a petition in Supreme Court next week.”

AIMS had also dashed letters to both Sibal and AICTE but nothing came out of it.

The controversial notification, which was issued bang in the middle of the MBA admission season and some GDPI sessions, sent admission processes haywire everywhere. Even after a month after the notification was issued, B-school directors are still clueless on how to go about the admissions.

B-schools speak

Suresh Ghai, Director, KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai one of the few who was willing to stick his neck out, said that he does not know what course of action to take for his institutes GDPI. I have no idea how to do my group discussions and personal interviews. Do I conduct them or not.”

PaGaLGuY had earlier spoken to the Director of Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur, Fr E Abraham about the fact that the notification excluded XAT from its list of permitted b-school entrance exams. Fr Abraham had quoted an older AICTE decision passed in 2007, which said that Admissions to MBA/PGDM (or equivalent) programmes, shall be through one of the five (5) All India Tests, namely CAT (conducted by IIMs), JMET (conducted by IITs), MAT (conducted by AIMA), ATMA (conducted by AIMS) and XAT (conducted by XLRI). All institutions admitting students on all India basis will have to opt for one these All India Entrance Tests.

Fr Abraham had said that it was unlikely that XAT would be barred. However when Pagalguy cross-checked with AICTE, it learnt that XAT was indeed barred as per the new circular, however there are talks on to include it as one of the permitted entrance exams.

This Orissa court order may give temporary reprieve to XLRI to conduct its admission processes as usual.

Deepti Agarwal adds:

Ashok Rancodd, Director, MICA said it was difficult to act on the AICTE notification so early. “We cannot do a somersault with AICTE notification in such a short period. Institutions like us follow a yearly pattern and such things need to planned in advance. The guidelines laid in the notification do not make sense and I have shared my considerable response with the minister.These guidelines will not allow for any variety or colour in B-school classrooms in the country. We should strive for global standards rather then taking those standards down. the endeavour should be on constantly improving quality.

While Prof Parimal Merchant of SP Jain said that while his b-school appreciates AICTEs concern about quality, the guidelines in the notification are a little tricky. “As these guidelines do not provide a level playing field. IIMs will not be affected by these guidelines however other institutes under AICTE will be in a fix.For institutes like SP jain, selection criteria plays an important role and if that is taken away our efforts for past 25 years will be swept away. So, it would be good if AICTE reconsiders and reviews these guidelines.We have written to the minister concerned and we are hopeful that these issues will be addressed, especially for the ongoing admission process. We hope that that there is a scope of dialogue to formulate a long term directive on this after discussions with all concerned.”

Authorities say

On the case in court, Dr PK Sahoo, director Western Region, AICTE said: “We will listen to what the petitioner has to say and defend the case accordingly.”

With regards to the notification, Dr Sahoo added: “I do not think that there should be a difficulty for state departments to conduct entrance tests. Looking at Maharashtra, we can see that the authorities conduct CET ever year. so, we feel that they have the wherewithal. AICTE has taken this step to work for the benefit of students, to lessen financial burden on them. This is a rational step from AICTE.”

Department of Technical Education authorities said they were fully prepared to take on any of the entrance examination if that was the need. An official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: “Ee are prepared for holding any entrance exams as directed by the government. The fact that we have been holding CET for such a long time gives us enough understanding for conducting such tests. All those AICTE approved institutions who are not following the CET criteria at present will have to follow it as per the recent government directives.

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