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ShareBANGALORE: A joint committee of seven Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs), the premier business schools, will meet this week to decide on outsourcing the online conduct of the Common Admission Test (CAT), from next year onwards.
A record 2.76 lakh candidates attempted the CAT 2008, which concluded on Sunday across 23 cities, seeking admission into IIMs. There are four in the running to bag the multi-crore contract to conduct the test online. They were short-listed from 30 contenders, said an official from one of the companies.
The committee of IIMs experts is meeting Wednesday to select the successful company, he added.
Two Indian companies, Bangalore-based Eduquity Career Technologies and Attest, the testing division of Aptech Ltd, are pitched against multinationals ETS Prometric and Pearson VUE.
ETS is a global leader in technology-enabled testing and assessment services and known for conducting English proficiency test TOEFEL and the Graduate Record Admission test for US universities. Pearson VUE, a part of the UK-based $8 billion Pearson plc, conducts the GMAT admission test and the online tests for CISCO Certified Networking Professionals across the world. "Though there are talks of the test being a replica of GMAT, IIMs have to logistically work out on the availability of computer testing centres, time slots and the registration process," said Anuradha Karale, a regional counsellor manager at management admission coaching outfit IMS Bangalore.
However, the current selection process of a company to implement the online CAT has not been without its share of uncertainties. ETS was in the news for the wrong reasons some time back with its £156 million contract with the UK Standard Assessment Tests (SATS), which examines the literacy aptitude of 14 year olds, falling through due to alleged erroneous marking and lost scripts. ETS bore £50 million loss on this count, say reports.
Companies participating in the bidding refused to comment on the either the process or their prospects.
In India it costs $250 and $170 to appear for the GMAT and GRE respectively. According to experts the online CAT could cost much less, around the Rs 1,300 charged per candidate in the physical test.
