GMAT takers up 20% in India despite changing immigration policies

While there were speculations that most students would shift to other countries as an alternative, GMAC did not observe any significant changes nor did it anticipate in future.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which administers the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) and NMAT, has seen the number of Indian candidates taking GMAT grow 20 percent since last year, Gaurav Srivastava, GMAC's Regional Director, South Asia, Middle East and Africa, told Moneycontrol in an interview.

Around 35,000 candidates took GMAT tests and India currently contributes 30 percent of test takers across the world, he said. The top three countries for GMAT test-taking are the US, India and China.

“Despite India's growth in GMAT test takers, it may not be enough to maintain the second position if China's numbers recover, as they used to conduct over 60,000 tests before the pandemic. By the end of 2024 or the following year, China might regain its position globally,” Srivastava said.

The GMAT is a standardised test that is commonly used as part of the admissions process for graduate business programmes, such as MBA (Master of Business Administration) programmes. The test is designed to assess a candidate's analytical, verbal, quantitative, and writing skills, and it is used by many business schools worldwide as a measure of an applicant's readiness for graduate-level business studies.

ALSO READ | Indian students studying in US may outnumber Chinese in 5-10 years: Montclair State University

Interestingly, a "significant number" of test takers have opted for the newly introduced ‘Focus Edition’ (both Focus and the previous version are available concurrently). From January 31, 2024 onwards, the ‘Focus Edition’ will be the only version of GMAT available.

Introduced last year, the new version of the test is significantly shorter, and takes only 2 hours and 15 minutes to complete. This is sans the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) section and with the remaining sections being condensed.

“The combination of the end of COVID-19 and the new regime in the US led to a substantial increase in applications, positively affecting GMAT numbers in India. The last three years showed varying results, with 2023 being the best,” Srivastava said.

He added that the tech sector experienced a slowdown in recruitment, leading to an inverse relationship with applications for higher education.

ALSO READ | Around 16% international scholars in US are from India

The number of Indians who travelled to the US for higher education increased by 35 per cent and resulted in an all-time high of 2,68,923 students in academic year 2022-23, according to the Open Doors Report, an annual report that tracks international students and scholars studying or teaching at higher education institutions in the United States.

Indian students constituted more than 25 per cent of the over one million foreign students studying in the US for the third year in a row.

India acceptance

To be sure, acceptance of GMAT is widespread in India, with over 100 programmes acknowledging it. However, the majority of these programmes receive relatively small numbers of GMAT applications, often around 20-150 applications. Only about 30 leading schools in India receive over 100 GMAT applications.

“GMAT is still primarily associated with studying abroad or for specific domestic programmes like ISB executive programmes. Indian assessments, such as the NMAT, are currently more popular for domestic B-school admissions, and NMAT's test volume is more than double that of the GMAT in India,” Srivastava said.

Around 75,000 candidates have taken the NMAT, a jump of 35 percent over the previous year.

GMAC’s long-term vision is to establish NMAT as a national-level exam, and it is working with regulators, including the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE),  as well as the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), to expand NMAT's acceptance.

No impact of change in immigration policies

Recently, Canada, the UK, and Australia have implemented various changes in their immigration policies making it tough for students to pursue education in these countries.

While there was speculation that most students would shift to other countries as an alternative, GMAC did not observe any significant changes nor does it anticipate any in future.

ALSO READ | Indian students continue to choose US for study despite recent fatalities: Consultants

“Our score-sending patterns have remained consistent over the last 2-3 years. This is likely because candidates taking the GMAT for international studies typically aim for well-ranked programmes. Programmes beyond Tier 3 often don't require a standardised admission test,” Srivastava said.

In the context of Canada, he highlighted that some programmes may not have been accredited or recognised by the government, leading to “different motivations” for choosing them. “However, GMAC test takers are generally serious candidates with 2-3 years of work experience,” he added.