Aligarh: A Combined Admission Test (CAT) for admission to M.Phil. and Ph.D. courses, except the Faculty of Unani Medicine, will be conducted by the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on July 21, 2009.

AMU Vice Chancellor, Prof. P.K. Abdul Azis has approved the recommendation of the committee for procedure of selecting candidates for admission to M.Phil. and Ph.D.

The candidates with 55% marks in the aggregate in the post graduate examination will be eligible to appear for CAT except the faculties of Medicine, Engineering & Technology and Management Studies.

Engineering and Management candidates having passed PG examination with 60% marks in aggregate shall be eligible to appear for CAT.

The candidates with MD degree with 60% marks shall be eligible for the Faculty of Medicine.

The CAT shall consist of two papers, Paper-I and Paper-II, each of two hours duration comprising of multiple choice (objectives) questions with no negative marking.

The Paper-II will consist of ten short answer type and ten multiple choice questions.

Examination of both the papers shall be held on the same day in order to avoid inconvenience to the candidates.

The cut off merit shall be 40% marks in the aggregate of papers and candidate securing 40% marks in the aggregate will be called for an interview.

Final cut-off merit list will be decided on the basis of number of research seats available. The number of available seats shall be calculated using 5:4:3 formula for professors, readers and lecturers.

The final merit list of the candidates appearing at the CAT shall be prepared as per the following: Admission Test-50%, Interview-25% and Qualifying examination-25%.

Candidates who qualify the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) shall be exempted from appearing at the Combined Admission Test. However, the candidates who qualify National Eligibility Test (NET) shall be required to appear at the Combined Admission Test for admission to M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes.

The Interview Board shall be headed by the Chairman of the Department concerned. The chairman and three senior most teachers of the Department shall comprise the Interview Board.

Foreign candidates are exempted from appearing in the Combined Admission Test.