‘GMAT completely different from CAT; AICTE ratification making exam more popular now’: GMAC chief

NEW DELHI: Over the past few years, the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) has been gaining popularity among business schools. Gaurav Srivastava, regional director (South Asia, Middle East and Africa) of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) which conducts it, told Careers360 that 35% of GMAT takers are women. He also spoke about how the endeavour to make the NMAT by GMAC a national-level exam is facing hurdles and shared insights on policy-level changes. Edited excerpts.

Q. What has been the rate of adoption of GMAT among Indian institutions?

We have come a long way. GMAC started its operations in 2010. The GMAT initially was being used by Indian School of Business and a few IIMs for their executive programmes. It is now being used by over 150 B-schools in India. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) ratified GMAT a few years ago. It is the only international test that can be taken to study in India. All PGDM schools in India can use GMAT exams.

Earlier, GMAT was contributing three people in a classroom. Now, the percentage has gone up significantly. The acceptance of GMAT is increasing, and for several reasons. Number one being the AICTE ratification. The other is the convenience the GMAT exam offers. It can be taken multiple times in a year. We have also made changes to the exam, like its format and have taken feedback from candidates and B-schools to make the exam an enabler rather than a barrier.

The team has also gone out to encourage more women candidates. Currently, 35% of GMAT test takers in India are women. Having said that, we still have a long way to go.

Also read GMAC Report: Business programme applications increase by 12% amid economic uncertainty

Q. What steps is GMAC taking to increase GMAT acceptance?

We have changed the GMAT format. We have dropped AWA (analytical writing assessment) as barring one or two schools, no one was using it. When we did a survey, students and B-schools said there were other factors that they were looking at. We realised that something like data interpretation is much more important.

We then changed the GMAT format to incorporate three sections – verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning and data insights. These full-fledged questions check the candidates ability towards problem solving. We have also reduced the timeframe of the exam to 2 hours from 3 hours.

Q. It has been GMAC’s long-term vision to establish NMAT as a national-level exam. What has been the progress so far?

We acquired NMAT in 2015. After feedback from B-schools, we made a lot of improvements to the test. We made it computer adaptive. NMAT is candidate-friendly and pricing is like other Indian exams.

Unfortunately, we have been going to AICTE for the last few years, but they don’t want to go beyond the six tests they recognise. We go every year and put in a request. The tragedy is that last year we had 75,000 unique test-takers. However, these candidates can only apply to 70-odd B-schools that use NMAT. PGDM programmes can’t use NMAT.

Also read CAT 2024: ‘Exam brought diversity hurdles to FMS but tweaks in MBA admissions helped balance engineering bias

Q. Apart from flexibility, how does GMAT compare with the Common Admission Test (CAT) for the IIMs?

The two exams are completely different. GMAT is a computer-adaptive exam, the way percentiles are calculated is different. It is not an exam of elimination, but selection. GMAT scores are valid for five years and there is no negative marking, unlike CAT.

Q. Internationalisation being an important aspect of the National Education Policy (NEP), how are B-schools faring in attracting foreign students?

We were approached by the then education minister Prakash Javadekar who told us about getting foreign students for management education to India. We collaborated with the top management schools in India and launched the Study India Initiative in 2017. We ran it until 2019 but discontinued it as COVID struck. We managed to get some international students but the success rate was not very high. Reasons are threefold.

Indian B-schools are not willing to offer scholarships. And, we will not get students from Europe or North America to study in India. Hence, we are looking at students from African countries, South Asia and other developing countries. These candidates need scholarships. The interest was high when we sent out proposals but financial aid was a challenge.

Another challenge was the GMAT cut-off. B-schools were looking at cut-offs similar to that of Indian candidates. But a student from Africa who has a 98 percentile can walk into any good university in the US with full scholarship. What we encouraged schools to do was to have a country-wise percentile. Some B-schools tried too, but then it was felt that the particular candidate would not be able to cope with their Indian counterpart.

The third and the most important factor is the ability of students to work after studies. As soon as students complete their management education, they have to go back to their country. They don’t get work permits and this is a huge challenge.

We then wrote to the education ministry and they made a few changes. Thanks to GMAC, foreign students were allowed internships. We got a letter from the ministry of external affairs through the ministry of education stating that internship up to six months was allowed. It is a huge victory, but it doesn't help.

Also read Despite IIM Calcutta legacy, West Bengal’s management education is stunted due to faculty crunch, funding woes

Q. The annual GMAC survey revealed that more candidates in Asia are now choosing to stay closer to home. What is it for India?

The trend we have been observing over the last couple of years is that there is a growing preference for studying in India, as against going abroad. It is not that candidates don’t wish to go abroad – the study abroad programme is at an all-time high – but a larger percentage prefer to study in India.

The reasons include better quality programmes and blended programmes. Blended programmes have made a huge difference where they get the best of both worlds and the tuition fees are also low. Moreover, students get dual degrees – degrees from the Indian school as well as the international one.

For instance, SPJIMER runs a very successful programme as they have tie-ups with a couple of universities in Europe and the US. The latter half of the programme is carried out in the foreign campus.

Also read From farms to plates: MBA agribusiness graduates are in demand and jobs will grow

This trend increased significantly after COVID. Candidates were not happy with the distance learning experience. Many universities were not able to provide deferment either. So candidates felt it was better to look into good quality programmes within the country.

Over the years, the quality of B-schools in the country has actually grown. If we look at the Financial Times ranking, the number of Masters In Management (MIM) programmes that have grown in the last three years is significant.

Q. According to the GMAC 2024 Corporate Recruiters Survey, employer confidence in business schools has risen to new heights. Is it the same in India?

I have heard from B-schools that with recruitment and placements, all schools and even the top ones, are feeling the pressure. The overall meltdown that we have seen in the tech sector globally was caused by several factors like wars, slowdown of demand in Europe and layoffs. There are also reports which show that placements have not been great last year. The picture has not been very rosy this year as well.

We don’t have India-specific data as GMAC’s research is carried out on a regional level. But the data relating to central and South Asia as one combined region show that employers expect to expand hiring for most graduate business degree holders and experienced candidates in 2024 compared to the actual hiring growth in 2023.

Research adds that more than half the employers expect to expand their hiring of Master of Business Analytics graduates in 2024. Compared globally, a much higher share of central and south Asian employers expects the demand for GME graduates to increase.