MANAGEMENT studies are still popular though select schools could not fill their seats. AICTE informs nearly 20-30 percent vacancy rate in their approved schools. One reason could be the growth in the number of institutions. In 2007, there were 1,132 AICTE approved B-Schools. This year the number stands at 2,385.

“That’s essentially a growth of 100 percent over a 5-year period,” discloses Rajesh Gopal, Associate Vice President, Education, Technopak Advisors.The second probably is the slackening of growth in the economy, both globally and within India. With industry growth not matching the pace, the slow down has hit quite a few schools. So, do all the students who still opt for an MBA get value?

Can an MBA fine-tune you, a raw young adult, to be a top-class performer within a period of two years?  Here’s a few statistics that may shock you. According to Business Barometer Survey of ASSOCHAM, an industry body; barring top 30 institutions, most B-Schools are not aware of the basic facts about the national and the global economy. “There is a void between expectations and deliverance,” says Vinay Grover, CEO, Symbiosis Management Consultants, summing up the general thought. Rituparna Chakaraborty, co-founder and senior VP, Team Lease says that mid-rank institutions hardly make an impression ‘given that delivery input is itself a suspect in such schools.’ 

Employability levels of B-Grads
Many top B-Schools in the world, in fact, don’t solicit freshers’ applications. But domestic schools are quite far from this evolved academic culture yet. This peculiar positioning adversely impacts students’ ability to negotiate wages when they graduate. “A student must have prior work experience of 2-3 years and then take a management course,” emphasizes Sunil Goel, Director of Global Hunt, an executive search firm.

Bargaining wages
Campus placements don’t leave much room for salary negotiation. “Students who are well conversant with the economic scenario and have worked in the industry before are likely to be lapped up,” maintains Grover. But their salary negotiation position can be contested.
In a scenario, when campus placements are the norm, pay structures are pretty much fixed by market dynamics. The small clan of experienced workers taking full-time programme usually finds difficulty in breaking a predetermined salary ceiling. Here goes the dynamics: A candidate from premium school who has paid Rs. 8-12 lakhs as tuition fee for 2 years, debuts within a package range of Rs. 7-9 lakh per annum, on an average.

“Many B-Schools deliver quality education, making students industry-ready in due time. But there are also some institutions which are under-prepared to deliver the required quality levels” Aditya Narayana Mishra President, Staffing, Ma Foi Randstad

Section norms
Super-premium category providers with higher fee get their students confirmed in top-notch companies on enviable salaries. Companies factor-in various elements before selecting a student. For instance, over all academic achievement, level of participation in extra-curricular activities,  communication skills, presentation skills, degree of swiftness in thinking, decision making, solution offering and so on. Large companies then take it upon themselves to train graduates further on. These are company-tailored orientation programmes for customized requirements.

Students of mid-rank colleges are paid less and not all get campus-placed. But such facts don’t deter a majority of schools from claiming 100 percent placement. Those who don’t, dole out inflated percentages. Tactfully, salaries declared are also based on average and not median calculations. These strategies are deployed to attract candidates and popularize their college.

Schools are also accused of influencing rankings to haggle for the top slot. That is because most rankings give high score to placements, catering to the immediate concern of pass-outs. Whereas, several other parameters like number of PhD faculty members, published papers, infrastructure etc., goes in the back burner.  

Feeling short-changed?
Most colleges tend to keep their fee high; however, the value of academic delivery is not at par with the fee charged. “The curriculum content has not kept pace with the changing economic environment and the industry requirements,” says Grover. To make matters worse, students are saddled with loan debt. A large number of students take loan for management studies and only have a short period for starting repayment; within six or 12 months. There is a big question mark on cost versus delivery output. Experts feel that absence of State regulation governance issues cripple the sector. Says Chakaraborty of TeamLease, “There is a need to have an evaluation mechanism to assess the AICTE approvals. The National Board of Accreditation which is supposed to do this job has been a non-starter so far.”

But in a country where institutes start enrolment even without having a ready campus, indications are that positive interference has a long distance to cover. Promises of self-regulation bite the dust. Websites of most colleges give out wrong information. Besides, relevant declarations are given a miss: for instance, faculty members’ academic background, a synopsis of course module, fee structure, correct placement figures etc. Very few institutes volunteer for accreditation. Business studies can be taken at any age, at any point in the career. High-skill programmes, on the other hand, have a limited entry window. So, the question is; why not enter in time, garner mobility quotient, increase shelf life, avoid burn-out and jump in an open field when the heart desires? After all, all sorts of flavours are needed to spice up professional life!