Delhi University may replace FMS exams with CAT

Updated on: Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Delhi University may soon scrap the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) entrance tests and replace it with the Common Admission Test (CAT) that are followed by a few other management institutes.

According to the minutes of the meeting held by faculty members of the Faculty of Management Studies here on Monday, the decision to replace the FMS exam with CAT was taken in the light of the university expressing its inability to help conduct the tests. The costs of using the CAT entrance exams for admissions, however, has many teachers worried. The university will have to shell out a onetime membership fee of Rs.50,000 and an annual fee of Rs. 2 lakh in addition to Rs.200 per candidate to obtain the CAT scores. “If you consider the number of candidates sitting for the entrance year after year and do the math. The university will end up spending over a crore. This ‘outsourcing' is a way to commercialise the public funded institutions” said Abha Dev Habib, a Physics teacher in Miranda House College and executive council member of the Delhi University Teachers' Association.

A few other faculty members are concerned that the academic value of the exam is being over-looked. “Our format is distinctive from CAT, over 40 per cent of our questions have never been asked in CAT,” said faculty member, Prof J. K Mitra, adding that the exams were scheduled to happen in December and the untimely decision could have negative implications for everyone concerned. “It's a 40-year-old tradition and the FMS exams have always been a bench-mark for other entrance exams. It did not deserve to be scrapped without due notice.”

Students of the institute are also unhappy. “The FMS exams are a legacy that will be lost and totally different from CAT. I personally am against it being scrapped” said Rahul, a second year student.

Delhi University may replace FMS exams with CAT

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