Revision as of 20:57, 17 March 2019

Reasons for studying management

Manash Gohain, Indians see MBA as ticket to jobs abroad, Dec 21, 2016: The Times of India

About 29% of Indians aspiring for a management degree are actually aspiring for global assignments, another 26% of the aspirants are seeking respect out of graduate management education (GME). Nearly one fifth of the aspirants are looking for skill upgrades, and in comparison to 13% of global aspirants, just 1% of Indians are looking at a B-school degree as a career revitaliser. And a significant 8% of Indian aspirants see an MBA degree as their ticket to an improved socio-economic strata.

A first ever candidate segmentation survey by Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) decodes why someone pursues or aspires to be an MBA. Shared exclusively with TOI, the study was conducted across 15 countries including the US, UK, Russia, China and India among others.Unlike previous GMAC studies, where majority of the respondents are from GMAT (the admission test for top global Bschools) and Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) schemes, this time out of the total only 43% of the respondents have taken or are planning to take either of the tests.

The motivation factor for Indian aspirants for a GME are very similar to that of the US aspirants, while reasons for pursuing an MBA degree for a Chinese aspirant is significantly different with nearly half of the Chinese respondents looking at the degree as a career revitaliser. For Indian aspirants, as the study revealed, bulk of the candidates are “global strivers“ and “respect seekers“. Skill upgradation and innovation are also in the priority zones, serving as motivation for 19% and 12% of aspirants respectively .

“For a long period of time B-schools around the world looked at students in terms of demographics ­ gender, age, nationalities, but didn't get to the core motivation behind why people want to study graduate management education.After all being a man or a woman doesn't drive them. What drives them is a particular type of aspiration. So we thought the time was right as the market has overall matured as to really look at the global candidate market place from segmentation point of view,“ said Sangeet Chowfla, president and CEO, GMAC.

The respondents were interviewed in local languages “in order to remove the bias that comes out of language,“ said Chowfla.

Employment prospects of MBAs

2015-17: 50% MBAs fail to get job

Hemali Chhapia, 1 in 2 MBAs fails to land a job , The Times of India, August 14, 2017

2015-17, Almost 50% MBAs fail to get job ; Hemali Chhapia, 1 in 2 MBAs fails to land a job , The Times of India, August 14, 2017

B-Schools Struggle With Old Content

On the academic floor, the MBA programme was once supreme. Unambiguously , it became the definitive must-have, attracting not only those interested in business but also those who wanted to master the tools of management.

The last few years, though, have proved to be rough. Data from across the country shows the payoff of this course has not been promising. Almost one of two MBA graduates is not placed and unemployment is rising.

The year 2016 saw 75,658 students get jobs on campus.There is no clarity on what happened to the equally large number of those who signed up for the course in 3,080 colleges spread across India.

“Some students who don't get placed take up small jobs; others get placed in some company one or two years after graduating. Now, with mandatory internships, we feel the situation will improve,“ said Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman, All India Council of Technical Education.

While IIMs see 100% placement, graduates from tier-B schools don't quite make the mark, say recruiters. Many who don't get into the top schools don't settle for a second-rung college either.The fallout has been the closure of 233 B-schools. Last year, an Assocham study said only 7% of MBA graduates from Indian Bschools, excluding those from the top 20 colleges, get a job straight after their course.

“Lack of quality control and infrastructure, low-paying jobs through campus placement and poor faculty are the major reasons for India's unfolding B-school disaster. The need to re-train faculty is practically absent in many B-schools, often making the course content redundant,“ the study noted.

Little wonder then that AICTE has recommended yearly curricula revision, three mandatory internships, courses in technical and soft skills, encouraging of startups, reforming exam systems and regular teacher training.

Fees, scholarships

2016: Fees rise, scholarships ebb

The Times of India, May 27 2016

PGBDM fees, 2017 and 2018, institute-wise; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, May 27 2016

Hemali Chhapia

Inputs from Ashish Chauhan (Ahmedabad), Pavan M V (Bengaluru), Somdutta Basu (Kolkata), Prashanth (Kozhikode), Yudhvir Rana (Punjab) and Isha Jain (Lucknow)

Becoming an MBA gets tougher as fees rise, scholarships ebb

In a double whammy for management students, fees of the top schools have risen significantly even as scholarship disbursal on the campuses has slipped.

The Indian School of Business (ISB) is the latest to raise its fee for an MBA degree to Rs 24 lakh. Its move followed the IIMs', which cit ed rising costs and shrinking government funds to up their sticker rate. The increases come even as almost one in every three freshmen is unable to pay the fees and needs loans or scholarships, said a faculty member.

In 2009-10, IIM-Ahmedabad handed out fee waivers amounting to Rs 8.3 crore on the basis of annual family income. That has halved. Last year, 239 students got schol arships and the college handed out Rs 4.8 crore. For 2016-17, financial aid is being offered to 251 PGP and PGPFABM students, 29% of the total student strength.

At IIM-Bangalore, 45 students of the 414 in the 2015-17 batch were granted financial aid. Eight got 100% tuition fee waiver for the full course of two years The Indian School of Business (ISB) on Thursday defended its fee hike, but offered a sweetener. There will be an increase in the number of scholarships at the institute. Currently 10% of the class gets aid; for the incoming batch of 2017, 15% will get scholarships. “While we had a marginal increase last year, this is the first significant fee hike in the last four years. We feel it is time for a correction,“ said Prof Dishan Kamdar, deputy dean (academic programmes), ISB.

“Increasing fees is not a sustainable way to build corpus and meet the demands of the future,“ said former IIMKozhikode director Debashis Chatterjee, who is now a tenured professor of Human Resources Management at IIMLucknow. “At the same time, there is no denying the fact that costs are increasing and capital expenses are huge.But institutes must devise innovate ways to raise money.“

What is evident is that scholarships are taking a hit at most top schools. IIM-Indore awarded need-based scholarships worth Rs 162.9 scholarships worth Rs 162.9 lakh to 53 candidates in 201213. It dropped to Rs 114.1 lakh in 2014-15 to 42 students.

IIM-C has raised its fees by over 17%. “IIM-C had no option over 17%. “IIM-C had no option but to go for a steep hike. We have had to increase salaries of professors. We have had to take into account the basic inflation. Maintenance cost has gone up, the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations have to be implemented, the cost of academic licences and software has also increased.All these prompted the BoG to hike the course fee considerably, even more than the proposed amount,“ said an official.

Help has come, unexpectedly , from the government in 2016. IIM-A claimed it had set aside Rs 6 crore for scholarships, but handed out aid worth Rs 4.8 crore as 22 students withdrew and availed the need-based scholarship for SCST students given out by the Centre, said a statement.

MBA as a degree

2019: IIM-A students get MBA degree

March 17, 2019: The Times of India

The 54th convocation of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) on Saturday was historic for the institute and students. After over half a century, the students were awarded a degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA) instead of Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management diploma.

Country’s premier management institution awarded its first masters degree after the IIM Act-2017 became a law in December 2017. IIM Bangalore and Calcutta also conferred MBA degrees in their last convocation. Sources said previous students too wanted a similar degree with retrospective effect, but the institute said the move is not possible. However, the institute is now also planning to hike it fee for the flagship course. IIM-A director Errol D’Souza said the Governing Council had approved fee hike of 4.5%; the MBA course would now cost students Rs 22 lakh instead of Rs 21 lakh. “The decision has been taken keeping in mind the inflation rate,” said the director.

Women

2013-17:  50% rise in girls taking IIM entrance

Yogita Rao, 50% jump in girls taking IIM entrance in 5 yrs, November 27, 2018: The Times of India

CAT 2018, the entrance test for IIMs, saw 50% more women candidates than six years ago. This year, 84,350 women registered for the Common Admission Test (conducted on November 25) compared to 56,409 in 2013. Women also contributed to over 50% growth in total registrations from 2017. In all, there were 2.41 lakh aspirants this year, compared to 2.29 lakh last year, of whom 78,009 were women. Of the 12,000 more candidates who registered, 6,300 were women, revealed CAT registration data for the two years.

CAT convener Sumanta Basu from IIM Calcutta (which conducted this year’s test) said, “The IIMs are consciously giving leverage to women to increase diversity in classrooms. We want more women in our institutes.”

The jump was the highest in 2015, when women candidates went up from 69,176 the previous year to 76,704. But overall registrations too had gone up significantly, by over 20,000, in 2015.

The IIMs have been reserving seats for women and non-engineers to make classes diverse. IIM-Kozhikode was the first to set aside seats for women, in 2013.

‘Steady rise in number of girls in tutorials too’

That year, 54% of the institute’s PGP (postgraduate programme in management) batch of 361students comprised women; also, 60% of summer placement jobs went to them, said director Debashis Chatterjee.

“A study has shown that there is no correlation between managerial positions and mathematical ability. There will be a gradual switch in the coming years, when class strength will be tilted in favour of girls,” said Chatterjee. IIMs have changed their eligibility criteria over the years. The weightage given to CAT differs for all IIMs. The parameters considered for shortlisting candidates for group discussion, personal interview and written ability test also include Class X and XII scores. “Girls do better in school and higher secondary classes, but as families prefer sending boys for coaching for preparation of entrance exams, they may be doing better there,” said Chatterjee. Most IIMs even give about 5% additional points while shortlisting for gender diversity in classrooms.

Prashanth Nair, centre director for Mumbai in a leading coaching institute, said they have seen a rise in the number of girls in their coaching class.