Last month, The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) came out with a study which concluded that “barring a handful of top business schools like the government-run IIMs and a few others, most of the 5500 B-schools in the country are producing sub-par graduates who are largely unemployable resulting in these pass-outs earning less than Rs. 10,000 a month, if at all they find placements…”
“I’d agree with the findings,” responds Mohammed Abbasali Gabula, Deputy Director (External Relations and Administration), S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai in a telephonic conversation. “India has the largest number of MBA colleges if you do a survey of college to population ratio. So when the supply outstrips the demand, the prices automatically fall,” he explains.
It is hardly inconspicuous that the country is populated with a plethora of colleges offering the Master of Business Administration degree. The figure of 5500 that ASSOCHAM has come up with doesn’t include all unapproved institutes. ASSOCHAM itself acknowledges that the number of MBA colleges therefore, could be higher. This kind of mass-supply has affected both institutions as well as students since the market doesn’t have enough jobs to match the production. The quality of education imparted too takes a hit producing equally poor quality graduates, say experts. “Any product which is churned out indiscriminately in large numbers poses a problem – the same applies to MBAs as well. In an attempt to keep up with their peers, students take up the nearest available MBA course. However not all of them are fully equipped,” says Sapna Agarwal, Head of Career Development Services at IIM Bangalore, referring to the mushrooming of MBA colleges across the country.
When and why did the MBA course reach such a predicament? Professors and heads of colleges across the country say that the MBA, from being a specialised course, has now become a minimum qualification. “Now, a company can get an MBA graduate for Rs.10,000. Companies no longer seek a B.Com, but an MBA today,” feels Gabula.
This was perhaps not what the MBA was originally devised for. “The MBA teaches integrative thinking, and also equips the student with functional expertise and cross functional knowledge,” says Uday Virmani, Director, Career Advancement Services, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. The school which has a one-year post graduate programme in management, Virmani says, takes only those students who have at least two years of work experience. “Students come to the ISB to fast track their careers as well as make a career shift of their choice,” he adds.
The MBA, therefore, was never meant as an entry-level degree. “The MBA was devised/conceived as any other academic discipline. It was meant to provide a student with technical and functional knowledge, along with grooming him or her for the job. Over time, possibly because of the importance given to the degree by recruiters, it has become all about bettering one’s income, a short-cut to earn more, perhaps,” says Akhil Shahani, Managing Director, Thadomal Shahi Centre for Management, Mumbai. “You’ll never hear of poor quality graduates coming out of colleges like Kellogs or Wharton’s because they insist on work experience. It is not an entry-level degree there,” he adds.
MBA in India, though, is available for both those fresh from college and those after a few years of work experience and this has been made possible because of the ever-widening spectrum of colleges. At one end are top-ranking institutes like the IIMs and the ISBs who insist on work experience and then the other end has what is called the ‘B’ and ‘C’ centre colleges who may or may not make work experience mandatory. Each cater to a specific set of students, say experts.
“The problem is that there is no regulatory body to standardise MBA education in India today,” says Sudarshan T.N. Director, ASSOCHAM. Shahani argues that the “All India Council for Technical Education only mandates certain ‘input’ parameters- such as the level of education of faculty, infrastructure etc. It does not mandate curriculum. But, where has regulation worked anyway? The needs of students and industry in Bombay are not the same as the needs in say, Guwahati. MBA today is a highly localised discipline. How can we standardise?”
“The standards of employability too differ from employer to employer. Most employers are looking for good communication skills, knowledge of skills etc, presentability. Academic score and technical knowledge come after this,” he adds.
If standardisation and regulation is not an option, then what do we do about this mass-supply of colleges and the deteriorating quality of education? Both Gabula and Shahani believe that the market will eventually determine who survives and who does not. “The rankings of the top ten colleges never changes too much. You’ll always have the IIMs, ISBs etc. All that will change is after the first ten or twenty,” says Shahani.
While the plethora of colleges is not a worry, it is the endless population of students that is bound to suffer. Apart from meeting eligibility criteria and scores, what most students have to battle are the high fees for MBA education- which too is subjective to market competition and the reputation of the college in the market.
Sudarshan feels that colleges that offer the MBA must keep a close watch on what the industry requires. Colleges must have a combination of faculty from industry and academia, add experts.
That education is a race, a survival of the fittest, is perhaps never better exemplified than what can be gleaned from the landscape of MBA.
