1careers360 research
Careers360
Management
Education in
India
Crisis or
Opportunity?
Status of Education report series
September, 2013

2careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
Issues that plague the business education scene in the
country include increase in number of seats, falling student
interests, rising fees and decelerating return on investments.
In short, management education is going through a crisis.
The paper, while enumerating the ills that adversly affect the
system (also based on our survey of 577 B-Schools) present an
overall picture and flags issues that the different stakeholders
of the system namely the B-Schools, the recruiters, the aspi-
rants and the media must confront and address.
Part 1: Status of Management Education in India.......................................................................................................................... 03
Preamble
1.0 Rising batch size! Falling recruitments
2.0 Decreasing students’interests
3.0 Bigger difficulty - lack of information
4.0 Is MBA/PGDM past its prime?
5.0 Regulatory regime
Way Forward
Part 2: Report on the MBA/PGDM students’perception about their programme................................................................... 11
Summing up.............................................................................................................................................................................. 15
Abstract
Contents
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3careers360 research
Preamble
To say that management education in the country is going
through a crisis is an understatement. An unfavorable global
economic environment, tottering domestic economy, shaky
business confidence on one hand and massive expansion,
rising fees and falling placements on the other, have placed
many management schools on the brink.
MBA education in the country is indeed going through
a rough patch. And the buffeting has only begun. As the
economy tightens further in the coming months, the place-
ment season for the 2014 graduating class is going to be all
that more tough. Directors of B-Schools bristle at the thought
of students and media calculating Return on Investment ( ROI)
for something as nebulous as education. Unfortunately, the
ultimate value for an MBA or PGDM programmes has always
been measured by one number, the CTC one gets in the final
placement. The blame probably lies at the doors of the insti-
tutions that sold one crore-plus package dreams when the
going was good.This dream, impossible to achieve, has come
back to bite the hand that feeds it.
It is a choppy sea out there! Institutions better beware!
1.0 Rising batch size! Falling recruitments
The problem is not entirely the making of the B-Schools. They
flowed with economic trends. After the global meltdown
in 2008, most of the western economies went through a
shakeout, but Indian economy was relatively unscathed, and
in the period between 2009 and 2012 Indian economy was on
steroids, B-Schools followed suit. They expanded as if there
was no tomorrow. Look at the aggregate numbers.
Growth of MBA/PGDM seats in India
Year Seats %YoY Increase
Cumulative
Growth
2006-07 94,704 - –
2007-08 121,867 28.60% 29%
2008-09 149,555 22.70% 58%
2009-10 179,561 20% 90%
2010-11 277,811 54.70% 193%
2011-12 352,571 27% 272%
2012-13 385,008 9.20% 307%
Source : Careers360 Research
Indian B-Schools went on a capacity addition spree during
2010-11 and 2011-12 with a massive growth of 54% and 27%
respectively. But the economy began slowing down from
2012 onwards, and is now literally sputtering. The reasons
could be many, but the fact is the economy as a whole was
unable to absorb this growth in numbers.
Take the case of IIM Calcutta, a premier B-School. Compare
the text of IIM Calcutta’s Placement Report 2012 to that of
2013. The 2012 report says,‘...Batch of 2010-2012, kicked off on
20thFebruary2012andconcludedby23rdFebruary2012.Allthe
processconcludedbytheendofslot1,withallofthe352students
who sat for the placement process receiving job offers by the end
of the fourth day.’
The institute had raised the intake of the 2013 graduating
class by 26% to 462. The final placement report came quite
late and the language is telling. ‘The 5-day process was a slot
based process conducted in the first week of March 2013. Fol-
lowing the slot based process, the rolling process commenced
on 9th March’.
What the sophisticated phrase‘rolling process’in the report
hides is the fact that nearly 50-plus students struggled quite
hard to get placed.The scenario has repeated in almost all the
marquee institutions which increased their intake numbers
in 2011.
Bigger number to blame - Indicative list
Batch Size 2012 2013
IIM Calcutta 350 462
IIM Lucknow 380 430
IIM Kozhikode 317 325
IIM Rohtak 37 122
What may be of solace in these dark times is that the melt-
down is happening across the value chain. If IIM-C, struggles
to place its entire students, what choice does a well-meaning
institute located in the back and beyond have?
1.1 The fees too are to be blamed?
What made matters worse is that the same period saw expo-
nential growth in the fees charged by the institutions. It was
from 2008 onwards that MBA became outrageously expen-
sive.The deluge began with the IIMs.The IIMA set the ball roll-
ing by raising fees from Rs. 4.3 lakh for two years to a massive
Part 1: Status of management
education in the country

4careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
11 lakh in 2008 ( See Table above). The rest followed suit.
The fee rise looks much more ominous when one calculates
it as a percentage of GDP/Per capita (nominal). India turns out
to be one of the most expensive nations in the world to pursue
higher education, especially an MBA.
MBA fees as a ratio of per capita - a comparison
Country
Per capita
(Nominal)
Cost of full-
time MBA
Cost as % of
per capita
USA 49,922 112,350 225%
UK 38,589 63,800 165%
Singapore 51,162 58,000 113%
Australia 67,723 49,378 73%
India 1,492 23,923 1603%
Pakistan 1,296 11,448 883%
Source: Per capita info from IMF (2012) tuition fees from institute’s websites.The institutes are -
USA: Harvard Business School; Singapore: National University of Singapore; UK: Said Business School,
University of Oxford; India: IIM Ahmedabad; Australia: University of Melbourne; Pakistan: Lahore
University of Management Sciences * All Figures in US$
1.2 It was too good to be true
As inflation galloped the fees also were raised regularly every
year as the Table on top shows clearly. And it wasn’t pinch-
ing since economic growth did raise the salaries too. But
it was short-lived. As salaries nose-dived, the ROI became
less attractive. With exponential rise in fees, most students
incurred huge debts. High fees, falling salaries and rising inter-
est rates meant that for a sizeable section of students, ROI on
MBAs became negative on an immediate basis.
One could justifiably argue that an MBA is a tertiary quali-
fication and ideally its ROI must be calculated over a lifetime.
Also that B-Schools are academic institutions that provide
education and not placement agencies, and there is tremen-
dous value that the alumni network of the school bestows on
the students over a lifetime.
None of these arguments appeal to a student who pays over
Rs.12-14 lakhs as fees, is jobless or joining a job with a Rs. 4
lakh annual package, and pays an EMI of about Rs. 25- 35,000.
He or she won’t buy this logic. Their successors learn from
them. And they walk away from MBA admissions.
2.0 Decreasing student Interests
MBA aspirants are rational beings. Their cost benefit analysis
appears to be on the dot. Despite the troubles many IIMs face
in placements, the positives that an IIM education provides far
outweigh the immediate struggles some of them might face
during placements.
The CAT exam saw the maximum test-takers in 2008, when
the number of applicants touched 2.76 lakhs. It went down to
2.41 in 2009, 2.04 in 2010, and slightly hit the rising curve with
2.05 in 2011 and 2.14 in 2012. And if the pace of registration
for 2013 is any indication the numbers actually might touch
or breach the 2008 figures.
The CMAT examination conducted by AICTE too saw nearly
85,000 students appearing for it in its most recent edition.
So the demand for a seat in a top-tier school is only going
to get more competitive. But the blood bath happens in the
Tier-2 and Tier-3 schools.
Be it Tamil Nadu or Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra, the pre-
sent MBA admission season is in an extremely sorry state of
affairs. A Times of India report dated 23rd July says, ‘Over 32k
MBA seats left vacant in B-schools of Maharashtra’. In the state,
where a total of 45,700 MBA seats are available, only 12,800
seats have been filled after the fourth round of Centralised
Admission Process (CAP) by the State Admissions Board. In
fact in Nagpur region, 20 schools reportedly did not get a
single admission.
The situation is much worse in Uttar Pradesh. In 2012 the
state could get just 14,000 applications for the available
24,000 seats. The counselling process saw less than half of
Exponential rise in fees at the IIMs - Indicative list
B-Schools 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
IIM Ahmedabad 4.3 11.5 12.5 13.7 14.4 15.5 16.0
IIM Bangalore 5.0 9.5 11.5 13.0 13.0 15.0 17.0
IIM Calcutta 5.0 7.5 9.5 13.5 13.5 13.5 13.5
IIM Lucknow 4.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 12.5 10.8
IIM Kozhikode 4.0 9.0 10.0 10.0 9.7 9.75 9.75
IIM Indore 3.9 7.1 10.0 10.0 12.0 13.0 13.0
* All Figures in Indian ` in lakhs
Source: Careers360 Research

5careers360 research
them applying for admissions. In Tamil Nadu, the counselling
began on July 28 and as on 14th August 2013, nearly 40%
seats are vacant.The scenario repeats in Madhya Pradesh, and
Gujarat as well.
And this drop in student interest is reflected in the national
scenario as well. The latest data from AICTE Approval Process
Handbook clearly shows that both PGDM and MBA institutes
are slowing down.The preceding tables give a clearer picture.
Between 2011 and 2013 AICTE received 231 closure applica-
tions from management institutions. Many schools must have
opened up during this period as well. In aggregate there is a
loss of about 108 institutes in the last two years. If the news-
paper reports are to be believed, next year’s numbers would
be quite a revelation.
AICTE-approved PGDM institutes
Region
No. of PGDM institutes
as on 31st March 2012
No. of PGDM
institutes in 2013
Central India 33 21
Eastern India 31 8
North-West India 42 64
Northern India 93 48
South -Central
India
27 53
South- West India 24 23
Southern India 6 33
Western India 52 33
Grand Total 308 283
AICTE-approved MBA Schools
Region
No: of MBA
institutes in 2012
No: of MBA
institutes in 2013
Central India 369 372
Eastern India 147 150
North-West India 472 477
Northern India 522 527
South -Central India 943 943
South- West India 277 278
Southern India 395 397
Western India 416 417
Grand Total 3541 3561
The number of PGDM institutions in Maharashtra and Uttar
pradesh has come down substantially by 46% and 42%. East-
ern India too bore the brunt of the slow down with a decline
of 74%.
It is regrettable because normally when an economy goes
through a downturn, skill and knowledge-building acquires
significance and normally institutions do see a rise in enroll-
ments. Our hypothesis regarding what makes MBA an odd
one out is in two parts, a) it is very expensive and b) students
many not believe that there is value to be gained by pursing
an MBA. It is these probable causes of lack of trust that we
investigate further. It is imperative that institutions, at some
point start measuring themselves on the ROI and more impor-
tantly, get together, to rebuild the confidence of the student
in management education.
3.0 Bigger difficulty - lack of information
The primary reason why students
are vary of taking admission in a
B-School is because he or she is
unable to trust the information pro-
vided by the institution. Careers360
has fought innumerable battles
with institutions. In fact IIM-A in
2011 informed us that information
regarding faculty, infrastructure,
placements and research are not in
public interest.
What are the factors that a stu-
dent must know when he decides to
take admission in a B-School?
●● Type of students and their percentile cut-offs
●● The quality of faculty
●● Level of placements and average salaries and
●● Infrastructure resources
3.1 Regulator apathy
AICTE, the agency mandated by Govt. of India to regulate
technical education does not provide usable information. All
useful information that the agency must provide appear to
be perpetually under construction. Barring a list of approved
institutions, all new approvals, application status, accredita-
tion, out put info, college data etc., are all hidden under a
portal, which demands a user name and password.Thus data,
which otherwise must be publicly available is now restricted
and hidden.
3.2 Mandatory disclosures of AICTE
All AICTE-approved colleges are supposed to upload crucial
data on all parameters under the head of Mandatory Disclo-
sures (MDs) on their website. Out of the 577 AICTE-approved
colleges we surveyed, only 19 of them of them gave us com-
plete data. At least 16 of them of had a file which was either
corrupt or did not open. And140 of them did a have a file but
the information was incomplete with respect to both place-
ment and admission criterion. More than half the institutes
have skeletal information. 211 institutions have mandatory
disclosures, which are at least two years old.
Source: AICTE Annual Report 2011-12 and http://www.aicte-india.org
84 DECEMBER 2011360CaREERs
Cover Story Data
IIMA:Are there skeletons
In your cupboArd?
F
rom our first issue, we have been harping on the need
for institutions to be transparent. Each year we have
faced varying degrees of difficulty in getting data from
institutions. Ironically, even though there is no bind-
ing government directive, most private institutions at least
provide us some information. But invariably it is the public
institutions who behave like ostriches. An IIM director
almost abused our reporter for having the temerity to file an
RTI with 32 questions. We are forced to file them because
institutes do not give out data, which is routinely available
in any self-respecting foreign B-School. This year ,interest-
ingly,wegotresponsesfrommostIIMsandhalftheIITs.But
this response from IIMA takes the cake!
We asked IIMA questions regarding, programme, student
qualifications, faculty qualifications, teaching load, publica-
tions record, amongst other things. The Public Information
officer decides there is “NO PUBLIC INTEREST IN THE
INFORMATION YOU ASKED”.
If the way IIMA, which is built on tax payers money runs is
not of public interest, what else is ? And who gave the PIO
the power to decide what is of public interest? We have of
course filed an application with the appellate authority. But
the point is that IIMA as a standard bearer of management
education in the country must have been the first to disclose
these information pro-actively in the public domain. They
must inform what is the productivity of their faculty, how
much money the institute makes, how many papers does the
faculty publish and where do they publish them.
We filed RTIs with 24 institutes. some asked us for money, for documents. some asked us to come
and inspect the records, ourselves. But IIMa said, informing the public is not of public interest
Response from IIMA to our RTI Request
If IIMA publishes this kind of information other players
would be forced to follow suit. And the general level of man-
agement education in the country would improve.
We wonder, does the grand daddy of management educa-
tion, have feet of clay?
84_Data.indd 84 29/11/11 4:42 PM

6careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
Level of completeness of mandatory disclosure
Quantum of information No of Instt %
80% and above 61 11%
60-80% 19 3%
40- 60% 111 19%
Less than 40% 386 67%
3.3 How do other government private institutes fare?
If the case of AICTE-approved institutions is far from satisfac-
tory, the case of recognized universities (both public and pri-
vate) is no better. The Government of India has mandated the
publication of minimum disclosure for all these institutions.
But most of the institutes surveyed (including the IIMs and
IITs) gave out very little information, barring a few exceptions.
3.4 Institutional website status
Website is the primary source in this connected world. Out of
the 1019 colleges we surveyed, 429 websites either did not
exist or does not open. That is, 42% colleges have given us no
means to contact them.The information brochure, placement
brochure are primary sources of information for any potential
B-School. But they too provided very little useful information.
4.0 Is MBA/PGDM past its prime?
The sheer fact that good schools, despite the doubling or
quadrupling their number of seats are seeing a rise in appli-
cation shows that students see value and appreciate a good
education. Exams like NMAT, and XAT are seeing a rise in the
number of test takers. In fact XAT which was falling from a high
of 1.02 lakh applicants in 2009 dipped again before notching
0.92 lakh in 2012. The figure again fell in 2013. But the num-
bers are quite on the rise this year. According to Prof. Vishwa
Ballabh, Chairperson, Admission, XLRI Jamshedpur, XAT 2014
saw 2700 applicants on the first day of opening of registration.
So good schools are back in the reckoning, though they need
to be careful about indiscriminately increasing their number
of seats.
4.1 What makes a good school?
Infrastructure, faculty, MDPs, alumni and research appear to
differentiate great schools from the rest. Having been rating
B-Schools for the last four years we see a new trend emerging.
Each year we examine over 100 B-Schools’ data to create a
ranking for B-Schools and in the process have a sizeable data
on over 30-odd parameters for nearly 250 B-Schools. They
are a reasonable representation of the universe of over 2500
schools in the country. Schools are increasingly attempting
to add value across the board to both themselves and their
students. And that has resulted in Tier-2 schools emerging in
many mini-metropolitan cities like Mangalore, Coimbatore,
Mysore, Nagpur, Vizag, Madurai, Bhubaneswar amongst oth-
ers. What does the data say?
4.2 Publications
This is one of the biggest positive changes that is visible from
the schools’ side. Out of the 161 schools that submitted data
to us for ranking last year, 61 had a journal. Though most of
them are not refereed and periodicity is suspect, it is hearten-
ing to note that at least more than one-third of the schools
had some form of publishing activity up and going. Since last
year we have been using Web of Science data published by
Thompson Reuters © and Scopus data by Elsevier © to meas-
ure the publication record of B-Schools. And the results are
quite revealing. Of the 221 schools we searched for data, only
67 schools have published in international refereed journals.
The top 10 schools account for nearly 40% of the total knowl-
edge production by the top 200 schools in the country.
Top ten schools in publication
IIM Bangalore
IIM Calcutta
Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon
IIM Lucknow
Indian Institute of Science (Department of Management
Studies), Bangalore
IIM Ahmedabad
IIT Madras (Department of Management Studies)
IIT Bombay (Shailesh J Mehta School of Management)
Just two out of the top ten schools are from the private
sector, and three out of 10 are departments within IITs or IISc.
IIMA, the pioneer of management education in the country is
behind even IIM Lucknow. In their quest to do more Research
Reports and MDPs the faculty at IIMA appear to have forgot-
ten the primary focus of publishing high quality research.
What matters is the bottom 20 schools in the list. Of them,
16 are from the private sector and nine of them are PGDM
institutions.The fact that private-funded institutions with lim-
ited means are attempting to compete with good institutions
is heartening to note and gives some hope that a number of
young private players are attempting to up the ante.
Institutes with at least 10 publications in a year (2011-12)
Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ranchi
Indian Institute of Social Welfare Business
Management (IISWBM), Kolkata
Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow
Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai
ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad
University of Delhi (Department of
Business Economics - DBE), New Delhi

7careers360 research
Institutes with at least 10 publications in a year (2011-12)
Institute of Management, Nirma
University (IMNU), Ahmedabad
IIM Shillong
Indian School of Mines (Department of
Management Studies), Dhanbad
SP Jain Institute of Management Research, Mumbai
4.3 Alumni - the new frontier
Alumni remain the most visible ambassadors of a school.Their
achievements reflect the school’s efficiency. Unlike interna-
tional schools, very few Indian schools provide the database of
their alumni to research/media organizations. So we used data
from LinkedIn, the largest professional networking platform.
Social media has begun to plays an expanded role in the
way we communicate and connect with each other. A recent
research report suggests that by 2014 over 30% of all recruit-
ments would happen online. Unfortunately barring a few top
schools, especially in the metros, none of the B-Schools have
attempted to leverage this platform. Out of the 200 schools in
our consideration set, only 75 schools have LinkedIn alumni
presence. We analysed at least 15,801 profiles to arrive at a
LinkedIn profile of alumni for these 75 schools.
The profiles were grouped based on the designations that
the alumni have as well as the type of companies they work
for. The designations were grouped as Manager, Dy. Manager
and Executive. The companies were grouped as MNCs, large
PSUS/companies, small or emerging companies. The findings
gelled well with the hypothesis one has about the standing of
a B-School. One would assume that a top of the line B-School,
which admits students with work experience, will have alumni
working for consulting profiles in top companies, while as a
Tier-2 school with a location disadvantage will be dominated
by sales profiles. The data bears us out.
Linkedin Performance
Manager Dy Manager Executive
Top 10 49% 52% 9%
Middle 10 7% 32% 60%
Bottom 10 4% 14% 82%
The top schools are dominated by managerial positions. If
you look at the top 10 schools, none of them have more than
10% of their total alumni profile in executive roles.The bottom
10% is totally dominated by entry-level functions. Each of the
bottom 10 schools have not more than 2 % of the alumni hold-
ing managerial profiles, there by clearly establishing a differ-
entiating tool for both the recruiters and the aspirants. Unique
phenomenon like a Tier-2 school predominantly favoured by
PSUs, a remote-location school finding favour with consulting
companies, schools with only executive profiles also came up
in our analysis
We also examined the functional area in depth. Even here
consulting function dominates the top tier schools. Sales
is the most visible function as we go down the list. For
more information on the alumni performance, and recruiting
styles of companies visit your schools page at www.bschool.
careers360.com or read the story on our web archives.
4.4 Student diversity
Great students gave IIMs their distinctive identity.The fact that
just about 0.03% of the students who apply get into IIMs give
the recruiters a certain confidence about the quality of these
So
what
dowe
know
about
2012
alumni
l IBM, Infosys, Accenture, Oracle, TCS, and Cognizant
Technology Solutions are bulk recruiters at IIM A, B,
C. They also recruit across Tier 1 2 schools.
l Global consulting like Boston Consulting Group,
McKinsey Company, Bain Company, AT Kearney,
Booz Company, Accenture and Deloitte recruited
for consultancy, research executive profiles.
l Barclays Capital, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and
Nomura are among investment banks where 2012
students joined. Others such as ICICI, Royal Bank of
Scotland, Yes Bank, Axis Bank also recruited in large
numbers.
l Many alumni took up roles in sales and marketing in
firms such as ITC, Airtel and Supermax and Procter
Gamble.
l According to the data captured, IIM-A has 17.2%,
IIMB 10.5%, IIMC 5.2% of 2012 alumni living abroad,
whereas in IIM I,L,K this varies between 0-2 %.
l If we talk about students going abroad numbers,
ISB Hyderabad tops the chart with 93 alumni placed
abroad.
l Going entrepreneur way are more from IIM A,B,C
vis-a-vis IIM K, I, L.
l A significantly large number of IIM alumni are
working in sectors like Consultancy, Business
Development and IT as depicted through graphs.
l For other good schools like University of Delhi
(FMS), XLRI Jamshedpur a majority of alumni work
in consulting space (21.9% 23.75 % respectively).
l XLRI Jamshedpur has 26.3% of its 2012 alumni
going for HR role, however, trend is different in
Great Lakes as 35.2% is in business development.
l In case of JBIMS, 33% alumni go for HR and
Administrative roles.

8careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
students. What is interesting is the fact the schools appear to
be consistently working on getting better students.
Schools with experienced students
Name of the Institute
Work Exper
2yrs.
Great Lakes Institute of
Management, Chennai
99%
Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow 53%
Symbiosis Institute of
Operations Management
46%
Prin L.N. Welingkar Institute of
Management Development Research,
Mumbai
45%
IIT-Delhi, DMS 43%
Even Tier-2 schools which participated in our ranking have
at least 20-30% of their batch size with work experience.While
little could be gleaned about the quality of the experience, it is
commendable that schools are focusing on creating a better
student body consistently.
Cut–offs too are an indicator, but there are enormous dif-
ficulties in identifying cut-offs, since at the last count there
are over 42 different entrance exams and most institutions
use more than one entrance to admit students. But what is
visible is the fact that cut-offs do go down as one goes down
the pecking order.
4.5 The BIG MYTH
Unfortunately, aspirants as well as some recruiters have a
myth about CAT schools. These schools are perceived to be
having a higher quality of students since they admit students
through CAT. Nothing could be farther from the truth. CAT is
an eliminating entrance test, with difficulty levels touching
stratosphere so that they could eliminate 99% of the test-
takers. So while percentile could be 90, the absolute score a
CAT test-taker could be as low as 10 or 20. So a 90 percentile
MAT students might be as good or as bad as 85 percentile CAT
taker. But the myth lives on!
4.6 Gender Diversity
Indian B-Schools, especially at the top level are poor in
ensuring gender diversity. The biggest culprit in our data
set is DOMS, IIT Madras which has a 1: 6.5 ratio of males to
females. The other members are not far behind. But there are
schools like Prestige, IBS Hyderabad; Sona, Salem; MANAGE,
Hyderabad; IMS, Kolkata which have a ratio of 1:1 or even 1:
1 where girls are more than boys. Way to go!
Gender diversity in IIMs
Name of the Institute
Male:
female ratio
IIT-Delhi, DMS 6.50
Indian Institute of
Management Lucknow
5.97
MDI, Gurgaon 5.48
Symbiosis Institute of Operations
Management, Nasik
4.83
Institute of Management Technology,
Ghaziabad
4.80
4.7 Quality of Faculty
Faculty unfortunately has become a ’hygiene’ factor for a
B-School. Its presence is never feted, and absence notified.
World over, quality of faculty is measured by the research
output, their consultancy work and the MDPs/EDPs they put
together.Their immediate quality is measured by their tertiary
qualifications. Only the top schools have a faculty with large
PhD qualifications.While most IIMs, MDI, XLRI etc have almost
90-100% of their faculty with tertiary qualifications, the num-
ber drops drastically as we move beyond the top 50 B-Schools.
Percentage of faculty with PhD
Name of the Institute PhD/ Fac Ratio
Indian Institute of Management,
Bangalore
98%
Indian Institute of Management
Lucknow
92%
MDI 84%
Institute of Management Technology,
Ghaziabad
88%
None of the institutes provide detailed information on the
nature of experience of faculty. AICTE demands that teach-
ing, industry and research experience are segregated. Since
teaching and research go hand in hand, some professors
give you the same number of years in both the cases. What
is worse, if someone is working full-time in the industry and
teaching part-time, they are accounted separately.This results
in instances where a 50-year old faculty claims over 70 years
of total experience.
4.8 International Faculty
This is another factor that is catching up with B-Schools.
Many schools now bring in faculty from B-Schools abroad for
a term or two so as to expose their students to global think-
ing. Schools like ISB, Hyderabad and Great Lakes primarily
depend on international faculty for their programme delivery
and even use it as an USP. Out of the 200 schools surveyed not
more than 15 have international faculty.

9careers360 research
4.9 Academia-Industry Interface
When one does RD, investment is converted into knowledge.
A basic fact is that most of the B-Schools in India do not give
due weightage to the notion that when one innovates, the
new knowledge thus created brings more money. And this
is so because the focus of maximum number of B-Schools is
on teaching and not on integrating research with teaching.
Innovation, which gets better as institutes engage more with
industry, is simply not on the mission statement.
Of the top 120 B-Schools in the country, 43% did not
report any industrial consultancy while 31% had less than
five industry assignments on an annual basis. The earning
through industry consultancy in B-Schools is also dismal with
an annual earning peak of Rs. 250 lakh in a top B-school.While
every institution has its own norm of devoting X no. of days for
consultancy in a year, (for instance in IIM-A, a faculty can do a
maximum of 53 days of consultancy), the larger fact remains
that the number of faculty members willing to actively par-
ticipate in industry interaction is extremely low even in the
best of B-Schools.
Management Development Programmes, another indicator
of industry interaction, suggests them to be underplayed as
45% of the top 150 B-Schools in Careers360 ranking survey
reported no MDPs in two years. Some 34 B-Schools shared
that the earnings through MDPs was more than Rs. 1 million
in two years while 10 Schools reported more than Rs. 10 mil-
lion in two years.
4.10 Entrepreneurship Cells
Another mode of industry interaction for academia is through
Entrepreneurship Development Cells. With the AICTE estab-
lishing 62 new E-Cells at institutions in 2011-12, most of which
offer PGDM/MBA, it is a good effort, provided activities in
these cells are monitored to yield results. The Industry Insti-
tute Partnership Cell (IIPC) operated by the AICTE is to foster
interface between the two entities by giving a grant. But this
is largely dominated by engineering institutes.
Distribution of grant under Entrepreneurship
Development Cell (2011-12)
Type of Institution
No. of
Projects
Grant Amount
(in Rs. Lakhs)
Deemed University/
University Department
1 4
Government/Govt.
Aided College
7 56
Self-financing
Institutions
54 288.69
Total 62 348.69
Source: AICTE Annual Report 2011-12 and http://www.aicte-india.org
4.11 Infrastructure
The prominent elements contributing to infrastructure in a
B-School include classrooms, library, books e-resources,
laboratories, ICT tools and services, residential facility on cam-
pus, and enabling environment such as indoor and outdoor
game arena, discussion area, incubation unit et al.
As per the Careers360 2012 Survey covering 577 B-Schools,
the following outcomes were seen:
Library Books
39% institutes had 1000-10000 books
38% institutes had 10000-25000 books
19% institutes had 25000-50000 books
4% had over 50000 books
Residential facility
80% of the B-Schools we surveyed had some sort of residential
facility. But when we examined it, most of them were outside
the academic premises and were primarily reserved for either
outstation students or women. Only 14% had 100 percent
accommodation for both male and female students.
Only 11 campuses were integrated in the sense that they
had residential, academic and recreational facilities; all located
within the same premises. When quizzed, most students did
place a premium on integrated campuses, other things being
equal. Some of the students we talked to were willing to
consider a good campus, even outside the city limits, if it has
integrated facilities
For faculty, only 46% of the B-Schools had some kind of a
residential facility. Only 3% of the B-Schools were fully resi-
dential campuses where both students and faculty could stay.
Faculty accommodation plays a very crucial factor in foster-
ing learning for students. Availability of faculty after office
hours facilitates a relationship that might contribute to learn-
ing, which is long lasting and deep. But very few campuses
appear to provide such facilities.
E-resources
There has been an exponential growth in the use of e-resourc-
es be it e-journals, periodicals, or online databases. More than
60% B-Schools have invested in making their campus wi-fi.
The top B-Schools have 100 Mbps campus network connectiv-
ity with a 2 Mbps dedicated Internet connection reaching out
to each hostel room. 

10careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
5.0 Regulatory Regime
The love-hate relationship between the regulators and insti-
tutes continue. A legacy of the License Raj, the regulatory
regime is still warped in a mind-set that treats private sector
with tremendous suspicion. So norms are more in tune with
inputs, like land, machines and infrastructure. But nothing or
no norm exists for output. This has resulted in unscrupulous
elements circumventing the system and getting requisite
permissions.
5.1 What are the issues?
Focus on mundane inputs: No creative tweaking of norms.
Computer lab still appears as a mandatory facility even while
institutes are moving towards ubiquitous computing through
iPads and smartphones.
Restrictive academic norms: Absolutely no space for innova-
tion in programme, like industry connect. If an institution ties
up with a corporation for long-term internship, it would fall
foul of the attendance norms of AICTE.
Interference in admissions: Even as there are five national
admissions tests, AICTE comes up with an additional test
making it mandatory. The objective is laudable, to reduce the
number of tests that a student must take. The regulation is
under litigation and the Supreme Court has extended the stay
on this regulation and allowed institutions to admit students
based on any of the six national tests.
Freedom to raise the number of seats or open satellite
campus: The regulator has no bandwidth to permit well-
performing institutions that seek growth and expansion to
either increase the number of students admitted or allow
the institution to open a satellite campus. The procedures
are cumbersome, daunting and intimidating, to say the least.
Distance learning: A big quagmire wherein as on date there
is no clarity on the validity of a distance learning MBA and uni-
versity degrees offered by study centers outside the territorial
jurisdiction of the university.There is also confusion regarding
the regulatory authority for MBA programmes in the light of
the recent Supreme court judgment.
Way forward
The markets are falling, sentiment is negative and students
are deserting in droves. These are best of times and worst of
times! Only good institutions would weather the storm and
emerge stronger. The least that all the stakeholders could do
is band together and fight.
●● Are institutions willing to up the transparency quotient?
●● Are corporations willing to invest in good schools?
●● Are regulators willing to assist and promote rather than
resist and obstruct?
●● Will we have a better MBA ecosystem in the country?
The 3 lakh-plus students who opt for the programme deserve
every bit if it. Are we up to it? 

Status Report B-Schools
11careers360 research
Part II: B-School Alumni
satisfaction survey results
Satisfaction of alumni is the best indicator for a job well done
by any educational institution. We ran a survey for the last
two months to examine how satisfied the students are. After
S.1 I am getting/got the full value from my
MBA/PGDM programme
A. After spending crucial time for a course that radically influences
one’s career progression, if 31% feel they are not happy with their
decision to do a management programme, it does reflect a grave
problem. B-Schools in the East zone, however, had a better satisfac-
tion response, possibly due to good schools focusing on industry-
integrated curriculum and relatively better job prospects as noted
in the survey.
S.2 My B-School’s faculty is/was up to the mark and their
teaching methods added tremendous value to me
A. In India, where the learning in classrooms is highly dependent on
the theoretical inputs and text book content as compared to foreign
B-Schools where candidates with professional work experience are
any day more; 64% of satisfied respondents is a blessing in disguise.
And if one in three candidates disagree with the pedagogy, they
seem to be aware of what they are missing.
getting responses from 1228 students, through direct contact
and through forums, we grouped them, cleaned them up and
analysed the data. Here are the findings
Strongly Disagree
7%
Strongly Agree
24%
Disagree
24%
Agree
45%
Strongly Disagree
5%
Strongly Agree
25%
Disagree
31%
Agree
39%
S.3 I feel there is/was a learning environment in my B-School
A. 78% is quite satisfied with the professional ambience in the
institute. This largely stems from the reality that the average age of
budding managers is quite low vis-à-vis the global average of say
32 years. But one cannot ignore the fact that a number of B-Schools
are increasingly placing a lot of emphasis on the latest business
practices, tools and trends that are found everywhere in the world.
Strongly Disagree
5%
Disagree
17%
Strongly Agree
31%
Agree
47%
S: Statement A: Analysis

12careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
S.6 My B-School taught me that life is much more than just
maximization of profit or survival of the fittest
A. Ethics appears to be on a slightly weaker wicket.What must have
been an overwhelming vote of confidence stops far short of that.
About 26% (one-fourth of the sample) do not agree that the school
where they studied taught them values, which are beyond immedi-
ate gratification. Competitive spirt appears to be the prime factor
for not focusing on ethics
S.5 MBA programme helped me improve my
soft-skills and grooming.
A. This is in line with the imperative course modules that state what
management as a discipline is all about. Effective communication,
personality grooming, nurturing creativity, arguing your point out
– are such skills that prove the 87% of satisfied respondents right.
Strongly Disagree
7%
Strongly Agree
38%
Agree
36%
Disagree
19%
Strongly Disagree
3%
Agree
48%
Disagree
10%
Strongly Agree
39%
S.4 I’d recommend the specialised MBAs offered by B-Schools,
e.g. MBA (Pharma.), MBA (Real Estate), MBA (Telecom)
A. The trend to pick up a niche area and focus a lot more on the
specialised domain is still not in the populace (45% versus 55%).
The charm of an evergreen field like Marketing, Finance, Human
Resource or Systems where employment opportunities are sizeable
outshines the possibility of spending two years in an industry-
specific course.
Strongly Agree
16%
Strongly Disagree
18%
Agree
29%
Disagree
37%

13careers360 research
S.8 My B-School’s Career Center/Placement Cell is/was
of great help, with regard to industry interface, summer
and final placements.
A. Placement offices better shape up.While 40% students are happy
an almost equal figure, 39%, appear unhappy. The poor quality of
offers, bad or unknown companies being brought in to shore up the
numbers and outrageous rules for participation in campus place-
ments are the most common issues that students crib about.
S.7 My B-School batchmates and alumni are of great help to me
A. Alumni appear to be supportive. About 73% (over 2/3rd) of the
population agree that the alumni did provide help. According to
the respondents, finding a guest speaker, organizing summer place-
ment and putting in a good word for final placement are the three
major issues in which alumni are of help.
Strongly Disagree
15%
Strongly Agree
22%
Agree
39%
Disagree
24%
Strongly Disagree
7%
Agree
46%
Disagree
19%
Strongly Agree
28%
S.9 My B-School offers best in class infrastructure – library,
canteen, campus, hostels, computer labs, auditorium etc
A.“Can I have some more?”appears to be the common lament of the
students. Even respondents from schools which boast of reasonably
good infrastructure appear to be wanting more. Nearly 33% of the
respondents would like a substantial improvement in their institu-
tional infrastructure. Bad or insufficient residential facilities appear
to be the common grouse.
Strongly Disagree
7%
Agree
45%
Disagree
22%
Strongly Agree
26%

14careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
S.12 I would recommend my friends/relatives to do an MBA.
A.This statement reflects the faith students have in MBA as a worthy
credential to pursue. Just over half of the total respondents agree
that they would recommend the degree to their juniors. The fact
that only 18% students have decided not to recommend the degree
shows the inherent resilience of the credential.
S.11 The Return on Investment (ROI) on my MBA/PGDM is good.
A. 37% of the sample size says their ROI is no good. Higher expec-
tation is a prime factor for this disappointment. But higher costs,
killing interest rates and general rise in inflation too have added to
the worries of the students. Quite a few respondents when quizzed
lament that their current pay package is just about sufficient to
cover the EMI of the education loan.
Strongly Disagree
11%
Agree
39%
Disagree
26%
Strongly Agree
24%
S.10 A recognized degree by AICTE/UGC is crucial.
A. The faith in education regulator is on the wane. Not more than
20% of the respondents consider an approval as very crucial. Rec-
ognition by industry and evidence of strong placements are the
most crucial factors according to the respondents.“Many approved
schools are pathetic” is the common refrain when quizzed about
their disagreement.
Strongly Disagree
9%
Agree
39%
Disagree
10%
Strongly Agree
42%
Strongly Disagree
5%
Agree
53%
Disagree
13%
Strongly Agree
29%

15careers360 research
S.14. I am satisfied with my job placement after
passing my MBA.
A. 44%, that is, nearly half of the respondents contend that they are
not happy with the placements they got from their school. If we slice
this data year-wise, nearly 78% of the students who had passed out
in 2013 have responded negatively to this statement. In other words,
the most recent placement season is also the worst as far as quality
of the jobs is concerned.
S.13 I would recommend my friends/relatives
to join my B-School.
A. Here is a matter of concern. 36% of the respondents say they will
not recommend their school. And more than 10% very strongly hold
that opinion. The fact that at least one-third of the universe has no
faith in their own alma mater must serve as a wake up call for the
institution. “Over promising and under delivering” is the common
refrain when these respondents are quizzed as to why they will not
recommend their alma mater.
S.15 My MBA is valued by the industry I am working in.
A. 33%, that is, one-third of the polled alumni perceive that there is
little or no value in the course they have pursued when they go to
work in industry. The respondents cite outdated curriculum, over
reliance on theory at the cost of practical exposure, lack of training
in building skills as the most important causes for this level of obso-
lescence in their programme.
Disagree
11%
Strongly Disagree
21%
Strongly Disagree
23%
Agree
39%
Agree
37%
Disagree
22%
Strongly Agree
29%
Strongly Disagree
13%
Agree
37% Disagree
23%
Strongly Agree
27%
Strongly Agree
18%
The responses to majority of questions posed to MBA can-
didates invariably suggest an increase in the dissatisfaction
levels on parameters as varied as course curriculum, teaching
techniques, niche specialisations, placements, add-on value,
return on investment, infrastructure and regulatory regime.
The most telling thing noted was the discontent shown in
recommending the MBA programme to aspirants and half of
the pass-outs not being happy in their current jobs. Moreover,
competitive spirit seemed to outshine ethics.The saving grace
for management education was reflected in the respondents
expressing their satisfaction on peer learning, alumni support,
and a sound environment for gaining knowledge. 
Summing up

16careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
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