Over 79,410 students cleared MBA entrance in state

The results of Maharashtra's last MBA entrance exam conducted by Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) on March 11 are out and over 79,410 students have managed to clear it. State technical education director Subhash Mahajan told TOI from Mumbai that about 82,764 students actually appeared for the examination of which 3,354 were disqualified on various counts. Those clearing the exam would fight it out for nearly 34,000 seats available in over 400 colleges across the state. From Nagpur division comprising six districts, 9,226 candidates had registered for this year's exam of which over 8,000 actually appeared at three centres. But in comparison to 2010 where 11,600 had appeared, and 2009 where over 19,000 had taken this exam, this year's number was still less. According to DTE officials, the MAH-MBA/MMS-CET was conducted across 21 centres in the division of which, 19 were in Nagpur while one each was allocated to Bhandara and Chandrapur. A total of 5,490 seats are up for grabs in 60 colleges across the division. Last year however, about 2,677 seats remained vacant which led to institutions going into bankruptcy. The entrance was originally scheduled for February 26 but since its dates were clashing with All India Council for Technical Education's (AICTE) Common Management Aptitude Test (CMAT), it was postponed. A majority of colleges from the division have stated that they will also accept CMAT scores for admission. The Maharashtra government had already granted approval for the CMAT which means this will be last MAH-MBA/MMS-CET to be conducted by the DTE. The exam is conducted for admissions into courses offered in government, university managed, university departments and unaided institutes in the state. However, the official expressed concern over fading popularity of management courses in the state. Though the number of MBA seats is increasing every year, the colleges are facing students' crunch, especially the new ones. Even in the 2010-11 session, over 5,000 MBA seats remained vacant all over the state. Schedule for MAH-MBA/MMS-CET-2012 * Registration for GD/PI & receipt of call letter- April 19 to 30 * Conduct of GD/PI at select centres - May 10 to 31 * Submission of work experience certificate - May 10 to 21 * Document verification at various ARCs - May 10 to 31 * Display of provisional merit list on website - June 16 at 5pm * Submission of grievance applications - June 18 to 19 * Display of final merit list on website - June 25 at 5pm MBA CET students' stats: Appeared - 82,764 Passed - 79,410 Disqualified - 3,354