There is a urgent need for introducing a single, universally acceptable admission test for joining institutions of higher education in India.
In the US, tests like GRE and GMAT fulfill this nationwide objective. In India, however, an admission seeker has to individually pursue multiple colleges / institutions before enrolling in any one of them, often by investing substantial time and money – and enduring great stress and anxiety in the process.
In addition, the nature, diversity and the number of institutions – whether autonomous or self-financed – gives rise to arbitrary controls over eligibility criteria, admission procedures and even fee structures. This further compounds the candidates' confusion and affects their confidence.
Such variance and lack of fair, unbiased and transparent pan India assessment system for higher education examinees, is also detrimental to the cause of providing quality specialized education in India. It is true that existing tests like CAT are a move in the right direction, but their coverage and scope are limited and cannot adequately do justice to India's huge and multi-discipline education requirements.
A national admission test initiative by EPSI
After receiving a large number of recommendations in the course of its many research based conferences across India, EPSI has mooted a comprehensive and a countrywide Combined Online Entrance Examination.
ENAT will encompass tests for both Postgraduate and Undergraduate programmes – including engineering, management, medicine etc.
ENAT's objective is to provide a reliable and universally trusted online test regime that is truly merit-based, fully transparent, completely fair, and one that offers equal opportunity to all students and aspirants.
ENAT's role will be limited to providing a platform for assessing the skill sets of students opting for higher education in institutions across the country. Beyond this, the actual admissions will remain a prerogative of the institutions at all times.
The ENAT model offers several inbuilt advantages:
- Full transparency and complete neutrality in the assessment.
- Centralized control over the quality of testing and test materials.
- Complete confidentiality & data protection through multiple sets of test papers for different candidates at the same test centre.
- Total security with cameras and biometric fingerprint scanners to confirm examinee authenticity, along with supervision by trained administrators.
- Fast collation & declaration of results, thus eliminating any scope for manipulation.
- Simultaneous testing of innumerable examinees countrywide with 23 online test centers in 19 cities.
- Online format ensures huge savings in administrative, printing & manpower costs for participating institutions.
- Substantial savings for examinees, by eliminating the need for buying separate application forms of different institutions – besides the convenience of not appearing for different tests with conflicting dates, times and venues.
- Speculation-free, candidate-friendly examinations.
An invitation to join and support ENAT
EPSI seeks the support of all like-minded institutions of higher learning, both technical and non-technical, in joining this revolutionary national test programme.
It is important to work towards the ultimate objective of full countrywide coverage, because only the total participation of all institutions will yield a complete and unified network of test centers so necessary to bring genuine credibility to the national admissions programme – and true quality to India's higher education aspirations.
For this, EPSI intends to cooperate closely with each institution. One aspect of this is understanding their 'catchment areas' – and to establish more test centers at more locations, wherever necessary.
It is significant to note that over 12,000 candidates are appearing for ENAT's PG examination in 2008, besides over 100,000 who are taking the UG exam.
Further, the data bank based on which the tests are designed, takes into account the variation in syllabi of qualifying examinations across India. The question papers are formulated by domain experts in tandem with SMEs who share their valuable experiences and practical requirements.
For details contact:
Chairman ENAT
Education Promotion Society For india
PHD House,4th Floor,
4/2 Siri Institutional Area,
August Kranti Marg,
New Delhi-110016
Ph.:+91-11-26533563/26533572 Fax:+91-11-26533569
E-mail:examsco@epsfi.org, chairmanenat@epsfi.org, secgeneral@epsfi.org
Home