Slowdown hurts B-schools' campus placements: Assocham
With global uncertainty blowing the whistle, the fight is on for the ‘survival of the fittest’. A large number of business schools, except for the likes of IIMs in the top 15-20 rankings, are struggling with 40-50 per cent drop in campus hiring over last one year. Making matters worse for these schools, the impact is seen in the declining number of student enrolments for fresh admissions, reveals the latest Assocham study - “B-Schools are facing the consequences of economic slowdown", released on Oct 9, 2013.
The salary packages offered at b-schools and engineering colleges are also being cut by 35-40 per cent as compared to last year. With recruitments going down and no hike in the average pay packages, a large number of B-schools and engineering colleges are not able to attract students.
“The situation in the engineering colleges is worse since a mushrooming growth in their numbers with many of them lacking in adequate infrastructure and quality teaching faculty,” reveals the Assocham assessment.
D S Rawat, secretary general ASSOCHAM informs, “More than 190 B-schools have already closed down in 2012 in the major cities Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmadabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Dehradun etc. Another 165 are struggling for their survivals, reveals the Assocham report”.
Apart from the IIMs and a handful of others, it will be difficult for several business schools to get 100 per cent placement in future, added the Secretary General.
There is about 35 per cent drop in students appearing for the MAT exam conducted annually by the AIMA, adds the paper.
“Many parents and students are re-thinking on investing two years and several lakhs in a course, with the demand and placement of MBA graduates not as good as before due to slowdown. It estimated that around 300 to 500 institutions have become defunct as they are not getting enough students to be viable,” adds the ASSOCHAM paper. Check the ROI of your MBA degree
Besides quality of education in an institute, students are more concerned about the placement and salary statistics and discounts offered on the fee structure, stressed the study.
MBA seats in India grew almost four-fold from 95,000 in 2006-07 to 3,60,000 in 2011-12—resulting in a five-year compounded annual growth rate of 30 per cent. Unfortunately, job opportunities for MBAs have not grown in the same proportion as the period coincides with the global financial slowdown. The MBA capacity in the country was built based on the projection of a 9 to 10 per cent economic growth rate.
Pointing to the poor quality of higher education in India across disciplines, Rawat added, "We have a peculiar situation. On the one hand, there are no jobs available; on the other hand, corporates are searching for skill sets not available with the students."
Assocham has advised the B-schools to improve the infrastructure, train their faculty, work on industry linkages, spend money on research and knowledge creation, as well as pay their faculty well in order to attract good teachers and wait for better times.
