Galloping Indian Economy Stares At Unemployable B-School Graduates

One of the world’s fastest growing economy has no quality managers. And that the education system is rotten and hollow is a scary scenario but true.

India has at least 5,500 B-schools operational. Barring a handful of top business schools such as the IIMs, most business schools in the country are producing sub-par graduates who are largely unemployable, says a report prepared by the industries body Assocham.

The industries body is worried because the graduates are finally absorbed by the industries. To maintain around 7percent growth rate India needs good managers.

Even the quality of IIM/IIT students coming out now compared to the last 15 years has come down due to the quality of school education. The faculty is also another problem as few people enter the teaching profession due to low salaries and the entire eco-system needs to be revamped.

ASSOCHAM’s Education Committee report said that the mismatch between aspirations of students and their level of preparation are crucial as most of the fresh graduates are afraid of getting their hands dirty. The flaw lies with the negligible hands-on training provided at Tier 2 and Tier 3 colleges.

The report expressed concern over the decay in the standards of these B-schools.

“Only 7 percent of MBA graduates from Indian business schools, excluding those from the top 20 schools, get a job straight after completing their course,” it found.

“Around 220 B-schools have shut down in the last two years in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Hyderabad, and Dehradun, and 120 more are expected to wind up in 2016.”

“There are more seats than the takers in the B-schools. This is not surprising in the wake of poor placement records of the pass-outs, “ ASSOCHAM Secretary General Mr D S Rawat said.

In the last five years, the number of B-school seats has tripled. In 2015-16, these schools offered a total of 5,20,000 seats in MBA courses, compared to 3,60,000 in 2011-12.

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 update and re-train faculty in emerging global business perspectives is practically absent in many B-schools, often making the course content redundant.

Rawat further said that the quality of higher education in India across disciplines is poor and does not meet the needs of the corporate world.

Of the 15 lakh engineering graduates India produces every year, 20-30 percent of them do not find jobs and many other get jobs well below their technical qualification.

There is clearly a rush towards engineering, that which is engineered largely by parents and the society. Indian economy is not growing at the same rate as the number of engineers. It is only the IT sector that absorbs engineers in large numbers, between 50-75 percent. There is a large mismatch in the aspirations of graduating engineers and their job readiness. 97 percent engineers aspire for a job in IT and core engineering. However, only 18.43 percent employable in IT & 7.49 percent in core engineering, adds the study.