Every year MAH CET is conducted in Maharashtra for the admission in various B-School courses offered in the state. This year MAH has made a remarkable come back because for the last four years the number of applicants for MAH CET had been declining every year. But this year the number of applicants for MAH CET have increased by 14%.
This time over 60,000 students have applied for the entrance test, as compared to around 55,000 applicants last year. The total number of seats for both the course are 42,000. Due to the declining rate of applicants, various institutes of MBA or MMs have been shut down because most of their seats remained vacant.
Also, around 23 course of MBA/MMS/ postgraduate diplomas have shut down or the number of seats for these courses were reduced last year. Over the last few years around 50% of their seats went vacant due to which institutes had suffered major financial losses.
Last year out of 55,000 candidates who applied for the common entrance test only around 49,000 candidates appeared in the exam and the actual number of candidates who took admission lied between 20,000 and 22,000.
This year, too, out of total number of candidates, very few candidates may take admission but the increase in number of application is significant. Out of total number of registered candidates one-third are women.
Dayanand Meshram, joint director of the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), said, "We do not know how many will actually appear for the test, but 60,000 applications for over 40,000 seats is encouraging enough,". Last year, over 30,000 seats remained vacant even after the three CAP rounds.
According to Apoorva Palkar, effective and better placements in the B-School last year could be one reason for the increase in number of applicants this year."Also, this year no deviation in the admission process. With the introduction of the common management admission test (CMAT), students were a little confused on which entrance test would benefit them for entry to state B-schools. Now they know that only CET scores are accepted," she added.
Moreover the investment in industry sector saw the growing interest of students towards the B-school. Also, globally the interest of applicants toward business programs is rising on rapid rate. Among GRE applicants, the number of candidates for business programmes recorded an increase of about 18% as compared to last year.