IIMs face an 'inflation' problem with CAT

Scorecards of more than 80 students altered; other B-schools say betrayal by IIMs; probes on

In a development that could have far-reaching implications on the credibility of the Common Admission Test (CAT), scorecards of more than 80 candidates who appeared for the exam have been tampered with.

CAT is used by the Indian Institutes of Management and other B-schools for admission.

IIM-Kozhikode (IIM-K), which convened CAT 2012, said it learnt about the tampering through a tip-off. "Acting on the basis of a complaint, a comparison of CAT 2012 scores available on the website with the master database of the scores (those received from Prometric, which conducts the test) shows that scores of 80 examinees have been tampered/altered, resulting in inflation of scores for these examinees." Only non-IIM schools using the score are likely to be affected.

CAT 2012 was held between October 11 and November 6. More than 160 B-schools accept CAT scores to admit students. Though admissions are over at many B-schools, the process is on at a few.

IIM-K Director Debashis Chatterjee said a panel has been set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to look into the matter. "The incident has also been reported to the police, which is investigating." IIM-K had filed a First Information Report on June 15.

Some B-schools that accept CAT scores said they felt betrayed by the IIMs as they were not informed of the development immediately.

"IIMs were supposed to inform us," said Harivansh Chaturvedi, Director, Birla Institute of Management and Technology (BIMTECH), Noida. "We trust CAT. It is not a run-of-the-mill examination. This is disappointing. IIMs should take responsibility for this goof-up. We are a member of CAT. We pay them lakhs (of rupees) every year to source students."

BIMTECH said it had admitted 10 students with the "inflated" scores, and had cancelled the admission of one so far. It admits 300 students using CAT scores every year.

IIM-K said the conduct and evaluation of test was entrusted with Prometric. "As per the practice in the previous years, the test results were published on the website, www.catiim.in, which is managed and hosted by M/s Web Weavers."

IIMs said given that they used the master database for shortlisting, the admission process has in no way been compromised in any of the IIMs. "Non-IIM institutes that have a formal relationship for the use of CAT scores are being alerted and scores from the master database are being provided to them. The IIMs are reviewing the process by which data are managed and published externally. The rest of the examinees' scores on the website, www.catiim.in, were found intact and matching with the master database received from Prometric," IIM-K added.

Publication of results on the site is being done by the third party for three years. S S S Kumar, CAT 2012 convenor and faculty member at IIM-K), said: "As we had taken timely action CAT reputation will not go down."

IIM-K said timely alerts were sent to institutions using the CAT scores. IIMs are mapping the process of CAT scores from the time the institutes get these from Prometric till the scores are passed on to the non-IIM B-schools. "Once we received the scores from Prometric, we had put it up on the website, which is managed by a third-party vendor. It is on the website that the tampering happened. We are trying to find the gap between receiving of the scores and passing it on to non-IIM B-schools. We are, however, proactive and ready to help these institutes, since we have nothing to hide," said Rohit Kapoor, the current convenor for CAT 2013 and a faculty member at IIM-Indore.

CAT 2013 will be held over 20 days between October 16 and November 11.

To ensure such an incident is not repeated in CAT 2013, the IIMs are also evaluating the option of managing the website on their own and gaining further control over the process. "The process is already strong, since we could detect the breach. While the investigation is on, we are providing original scores to the B-schools that we received from Prometric," Kapoor added.

IIM-K said in an emailed reply to this newspaper the external data management and associated systems are under thorough review and once the IIMs are through with the review process, a foolproof system will ensure such eventualities do not arise.

This is the second such case reported in the past two months. Last month, Mumbai-based Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies had unearthed a national-level MBA admission test racket, where 87 candidates had forged their identities to secure places on the final merit list for admission to various management programmes offered by it. The institute conducts its own admission test, NMIMS Management Aptitude Test.

According to Mumbai police officials, the accused candidates had spent Rs 15 lakh to secure admission and at least six individuals had impersonated for 87 or more students across the country.