We Are Running Out Of Students: India's B-Schools
There was a time when B- Schools was the dream college for
many aspiring students. But now they are seeing a downturn. The ever
increasing fee, bad job placement scenarios has discouraged many students. It is
a challenge to get students for Business school.
Many issues like bad job placement scenario, quality about B Schools have created
awareness among students. Premchand Palety of Wall Street Journal explained about
the scarcity of students in Indian B schools, the causes and how it can be a major
concern. Aradhana Chopra, Deputy Director of All India Council for Technical Education
(AICTE) said that last year, over 20,000 of about 130,000 AICTE-approved management
program seats were vacant. The prime reason for this could be the high increase
in the supply side. There has been liberal granting of approvals for new institutes
and also capacity expansion of the existing ones in the last five years. This year,
more vacant seats are expected as many new approvals have been granted in last year.
In past four year, there was a dramatic change and the capacity increase in top
B-Schools. At IIM-Ahmedabad the student intake has risen to 381 in 2009 versus 250
in 2006. At IIM-Kozhikode, it has risen to 261 versus 120. This has created student
scarcity for lower rung B-schools. Moreover the lack of corporate jobs also affected
student inflow to campus. In most of the B Schools the fee has increased by 50 percent
to 100 percent in the last three years. Because of the economic slowdown, MBA education
is not as profitable as it was before. Even the applications for the common admission
test saw a drop when compared to previous years.
Moreover the bad placement record had made the student as well as their parents
cautious. Now many students make a lot of inquiries before get into B Schools. To
get students, B-schools are trying various tactics apart from the regular advertisements.
S.R Singhvi, a faculty member of the International Management Institute (IMI) says
that many B-schools, especially the lower rung ones, are offering commission to
their existing students and even faculty for bringing in new students.
To sustain in the business, B Schools have to lift up their standards. Now that
the foreign university bill is passed, the competition to get students is going
to get even tougher. B schools are known to give business solutions to many corporate
companies, but we will have wait and watch how they will strategize to get more
students for their business schools.
Courtesy: SiliconIndia
