Several management institutes across the country plan legal action to seek a reprieve from recent guidelines issued by the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
Representatives of at least five B-schools in Delhi and Mumbai told Business Standard they are in discussions with others to form a consortium and approach the Bombay or Delhi High Court to either seek an interim injunction or reversal of the AICTE guidelines.
Over 200 B-schools are scheduled to meet in Delhi next week to discuss the issue and decide a future course of action.
We must allow market forces to determine admissions. In the age of liberalisation, we seem to be going backward. There can't be a diktat on admissions. We will discuss this matter with other B-schools and take necessary legal steps," said Suresh Ghai, director, K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research.
"B-schools have a right to go to court. We will put forth our views, too. These guidelines were not abrupt decisions. If other technical educational institutes, including those for engineering, architecture and hotel management, agree to AICTE's guidelines, why can't B-schools?" asked a senior AICTE executive.
In December 2010, AICTE issued guidelines on post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM) courses. Of the clauses, B-schools strongly oppose the norm that admission to PGDM courses must be through common entrance tests such as the Common Admission Test (CAT), Management Aptitude Test (MAT) or examinations conducted by state governments.
"By allowing students to give CAT, MAT or state-level exams, we are diluting the quality of students. A proper comparison cannot be made since the level of difficulty differs in each of these exams. Also, we cannot say that a student who secures 60 per cent in CAT, 50 per cent in MAT and 85 per cent in state-level exams are at par," said the director of a business management institute run by a Mumbai-based university.
AICTE also directed B-schools not to start admissions to their PGDM (executive) courses before March 31
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