The number of applicants for the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2023, conducted for admissions to MBA courses at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), is the highest ever at 3.3 lakh since the exam’s inception in 1977. It’s a 30% jump from last year and the highest ever number of women candidates.
According to officials from IIM-Lucknow, which is organising the entrance test to the country’s premier business schools this year, the surge in applications is “historic”. The computer-based exam is scheduled to be held on November 26.
As per data shared by the institute, while 3.3 lakh candidates have registered this year (2023), the figures stood at 2.55 lakh in 2022, 2.3 lakh in 2021, 2.28 lakh in 2020 and 2.44 lakh in 2019.
Out of the total registered candidates this year, 1.17 lakh are women, highest ever number of female applicants, mainly on account of a rise in overall applications as well as a ripple effect of more access due to an increased number of test centres allotted across tier -II cities, sub-urban and rural areas, said faculty members.
Several crucial factors have played out in the record applications this year, including increase in the number of test centres across cities, wider reach to include rural and sub-urban towns, a greater number of non-IIM institutes accepting CAT score, and an increased interest in business management post-pandemic.
“There are several reasons behind the increase in the number of registrations such as the efforts of the entire CAT team in sending timely reminders to the candidates, media outreach and publicity especially in tier-II and small cities, growing interest among youth about management education, addition of a greater number of test cities this year and a greater number of non-IIM institutes accepting CAT scores, to name a few,” said Prof Sanjeet Singh, Decision Sciences area, IIM-Lucknow and CAT convenor 2023.
The wider reach has given an opportunity to the youth from small cities, suburban areas and rural pockets to take the exam. “This has been an important area of concern for IIMs, as management was until recently considered a choice of the urban youth, but the number of applications shows that students from the interiors and second-rung cities are as much aware and want to get into good MBA colleges. This will also reflect in greater diversity in the classrooms,” said a faculty member from one of the IIMs who didn’t wish to be identified.
This is also because, approximately, 35% of the registered candidates are engineers. “A lot of students from IITs, NITs and other engineering colleges apply for management courses post-graduation and they come from every other part of the country. Also, post-pandemic, when the global economy took a blow, there has been a slight tilt towards business studies with more graduates wanting to pursue management,” the faculty member added.
There are 21 IIMs in the country. CAT scores are accepted for admission to all IIMs, management seats in IITs, FMS and MDI, among other business schools across India.
Conducted by older IIMs in rotation, CAT is the largest MBA entrance exam in India, and this year, two more top institutes will consider these scores for admission to management courses – IIM-Mumbai, which is the newly-christened IIM (formerly NITIE), and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT).
The applications error correction window for this year closed on September 28. The admit cards will be released by the organising IIM on October 25 at 5pm.
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