With the AICTE and UGC operating at a tangent and the courts reversing their orders frequently, management education is at crossroads now. Already plagued by issues of empty seats, unbridled capacity expansion and major issues of RoI the reputation of the degree has taken a beating. What is the way forward in this scenario? This white paper examines the status of MBA/PGDM system as it exists today and raises pertinent issues that matter to the B-Schools. From entrances to RoI we look at all aspects of management education with an objective to understand where the domain stands.

1. 1careers360 research
Management
Education in
India
Where is it
headed?
Status of Education report series
AUGUST, 2014

2. 2careers360 research 3careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
With the AICTE and UGC operating at a tangent and the courts
reversing their orders frequently, management education is
at crossroads now. Already plagued by issues of empty seats,
unbridled capacity expansion and major issues of RoI the
reputation of the degree has taken a beating. What is the way
forward in this scenario?This white paper examines the status
of MBA/PGDM system as it exists today and raises pertinent
issues that matter to the B-Schools. From entrances to RoI we
look at all aspects of management education with an objec-
tive to understand where the domain stands.
Preamble
1.0 Management Schools: Survival of the fittest...................................................................................................................................3
2.0 Is the quality of student rising?............................................................................................................................................................5
3.0 Faculty quality............................................................................................................................................................................................6
4.0 Accreditation...............................................................................................................................................................................................6.
5.0 Need for residential B-Schools..............................................................................................................................................................6
6.0 Research........................................................................................................................................................................................................7
7.0 Academia-Industry interface.................................................................................................................................................................8
8.0 Cost of management education..........................................................................................................................................................8
9.0 Placements and Return on Investment.............................................................................................................................................9
10.0 Regulatory framework...........................................................................................................................................................................10
Way Forward
Abstract
Contents
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Assistant Art Director Rajesh Chawla
Preamble
Falling student interest as evidenced by lower CAT test enrol-
ments, vacant seats in many B-Schools, longer and uncertain
placement weeks even in top tier schools, management
education in the country is undergoing a sea change. MBA
programme in the country is indeed going through a rough
patch. And the buffeting began about a few years back.
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
of 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 institutions that sold
one crore-plus salary package dreams.This dream, impossible
to achieve, has come back to bite the hand that feeds it.
Despite the right noises made , the new government still
is in nascent stages for the business scenario to improve sub-
stantially. B-Schools need to tide over these times with right
amount of caution, clarity and clear-cut strategy. Let us look
at what the numbers say.
1.0 Management Schools: Survival of the fittest
Geographically management education still is concentrated in
southern states, with the south accounting of almost half the
number of schools (See the graph below). But numbers could
be misleading. While south has the maximum number of
institutes, it is populated mostly by MBA programmes offered
by Departments in Engineering colleges. Relatively lesser
number of full-fledged PGDM programmes are on offer from
the south barring exceptions likeTAPMI, XIME, PSG etc. And as
expected East continues to languish at 4%.
1.1 But maximum intake is still from South
As the table below shows, three out of the top five positions
in terms of the number of institutes and intake happens from
the three southern states. But in terms of intake, most of
theses colleges if they offer PGDM do have an all India catch-
ment area and if they offer an affiliated MBA programme, the
student body is locally dominated.
Table 1.1: States with large student intake
State No. of Institutes Intake
Andhra Pradesh 841 122191
Uttar Pradesh 523 68810
Maharashtra 413 49799
Tamil Nadu 377 32815
Karnataka 222 24690
1.1What is more on offer, MBA or PGDM?
With just 644 of the 3462-odd approved schools offering
PGDM, the PG diploma schools are definitely a minority. The
affiliated colleges syndrome has resulted in innumerable engi-
neering colleges offering MBA, thus burgeoning MBA school
population. Anna University Chennai alone has 276 affiliating
institutes offering MBA or an equivalent degree. Accounting
for nearly 1/6th of the total, others do not have any affiliation
with a university and provide a PG Diploma on their own.
Institutes OfferingTwo-year PG Programmes
Programme
University
Affiliated
Institutes
Stand Alone
Institutes
Total
Institutes
MBA/PGDM 2818 644 3462
1.1.1What do these schools offer?
Management programmes generally come as General
Management (MBA/PGDM) and named specialization pro-
grammes such as MBA (Tourism). The university departments
understandably are conservative and offer only general MBA
programmes. Private players are more evenly poised in their
offerings with nearly 50% schools offering specialised named
programmes (See graph 2 on the next page).
From crisis to opportunity -
a new paradigm for MBA/PGDM
South
45%
West
18%
North
26%
East
4%
Central
7%
Graph 1: Geographical distribution of Institutions

3. 4careers360 research 5careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
1.3 Consolidation has begun?
As the economy went through a tailspin during the last few
years management education too underwent growth pangs.
The decline in number of B-Schools from 3541 in 2011-12 to
3364 in 2013-14 corroborates the fact that it is the best and
the toughest that survive. However, it is interesting to note
that there has been a 6 percent rise in the sanctioned intake
among the AICTE-recognized institutes offering manage-
ment programmes between 2011-12 and 2013-14 when the
number of seats increased from 3.34 lakhs to 3.54 lakhs in
the corresponding period. The sanctioned intake in 2014-15,
however, shows an incredible rise to nearly 4.1 lakhs. This
is on account of increase in number of seats in the existing
institutions that were approved by AICTE and also because
close to 100 new institutes were added in the last one year.
The unofficial estimates register at least 220 institutes closing
down in the last three years with a notable fall in the aver-
age occupancy rate oscillating in the 68 to 70 percent range
(Careers360 Research and CRISIL Report (2014). So the sector
is undergoing a churn and it may be good for every stake-
holder in the long run.
2.0 Is student quality improving?
Entrance tests are good places to start with when one needs
to understand trends both in terms of student quality as well
as student interest towards management education. A cursory
look at the data provided by major examinations give out
interesting trends.
2.1 General decline in number of test-takers.
The Common AdmissionTest (CAT) is one of the most coveted
exams conducted for admission to the Indian Institutes of
Management (IIMs) and other institutes in India. Being con-
ducted this year byTata Consultancy Services (TCS) for the first
time, CAT attracts close to 2 lakh applicants. The official data
of CAT and other management entrance exams for academic
year 2013-14 shows a considerable decline in registration
numbers (approximately) as shown in the Table 2.1 below
Table 2.1:Test-takers on leading MBA entrances
Exam Registration (2013) Registration (2014)
CAT 2,14000 1,94,000
XAT 92,000 89,000
NMAT 69,000 64,000
Irrespective of the entrance examination, the number of test-
takers have begun to slow down. What is interesting is the
fact that the number of seats available through CAT is steadily
increasing. As Table 2.1.1 explains, the odds of getting a seat
in an IIM which was 11 per 1000 four years back has increased
to 17.7 in the current year. So other things being equal, the
number of aspirants to CAT must go up. But it doesn’t as the
table above shows.
In 1960’s IIMs selection rate was 1 among 30 applicants.
With the rise in number of seats due to newer IIMs, there are
in all 3438 seats for 1.94 lakh CAT applicants or roughly 57
applicants for a coveted seat in any of the 13 IIMS. Today, for
a seat in any of the four old IIMs (A, B, C and L), there are 116
applicants. The admission was a lot tougher in the 1990s or
early 2000 when there were as high as 400 applicants compet-
ing for a seat in IIM.
Table 2.1.1
Admission
Year
Total number of
CAT applicants
Total number
of seats at IIM
Seats available
per 1000
candidates
2010-12 241000 2650 11
2011-13 204000 2750 13.5
2012-14 205000 2946 14.4
2013-15 214000 3220 15.0
2014-16 194000 3438 17.7
2.2 But is the quality of students rising?
Doubtful is the answer. Last year Careers360 brought out a
story, wherein a candidate who attempted zero questions in
CAT was placed on the 55th percentile indicating that there
where at least 45 percent of students who scored in negative
digits in the same exam. An expert even concluded that more
students took the test irrespective of their preparedness level
and this has led to decline in performance at the bottom.
Take another exam, CMAT, conducted by AICTE. According
to the September CMAT 2013 results, out of 64,534 candidates
who were ranked, the number of candidates scoring 30 per-
cent marks or less was 43,805.The share of candidates scoring
zero or negative marks has also increased four-fold, the data
reveals. As compared to September 2012 CMAT exam where
the share of candidates scoring zero or negative marks was
0.48, September 2013 CMAT merit list shows 1.63 per cent of
students scoring zero or below, a four-fold increase.
While experts attribute this ‘decline in quality’ to the
increased toughness level and increasing volume of test-tak-
ers, they don’t see a definitive trend emerging out of this merit
list. Sandeep Manudhane, Chairman, PT Education says that
CMAT paper was tougher this year.“The poor performance of
the candidates might be due to the higher level of difficulty
of CMAT paper this year,”he says.
Career Launcher Vice Chairman and MD Gautam Puri attri-
bute this dip in the performance to increasing volume of
candidates which include non-serious students also. And
he concludes that the cut-off for the B-Schools are likely to
remain unaffected as the performance issue is confined to the
bottom end of the merit list.
In other words, despite students scoring poorly, the cut-off
for top players will remain the same is the conclusion drawn
by experts. But the issue is quite a few B-Schools admit stu-
dents at the 55- 60 percentile category who in the case of CAT
are aspirants who have scored negative absolute scores. This
definitely is a cause for concern.
2.3 Are students begining to think global?
However, the declining popularity of CAT (see Table 2.1) and
the increasing interest among MBA aspirants in the Gradu-
ate Management Assessment Test (GMAT) conducted by the
global GMAC primarily for doing a management course in a
foreign country implies that Indian students are exploring all
possibilities that work out to their advantage. It also suggests
that there could be more number of applicants who are work-
ing professionals willing to re-skill amidst global slowdown.
The number of Indian institutions accepting GMAT scores has
also increased wherein nearly 250 management programmes
in India have started accepting GMAT scores, up from only 37
in 2010. GMAT’s growing popularity over CAT could be attrib-
uted to its flexible format that allows aspirants to write the test
a number of times in a year. Also the test score’s longer validity
makes it quite popular.
Table 2.3 GMATVs CAT
Year GMATTakers from India CATTakers in India
2009 18,929 2,30,000
2012 22,310 1,94,000
2013 22,878 1,74,000
2.4 Is work experience essential?
Indian B-Schools are still populated by freshers though the
trend is slowly changing. What one sees is the fact that expe-
rienced professionals are seeking one-year programmes to
add value to themselves as evidenced by data provided by a
school like Greatlakes. But at most of the schools with 2-year
programmes the population is dominated by freshers.
Table 2.4: Does Experience Count?
B-School 2 years work exp.
Great Lakes 98%
IIM Bangalore 55%
TAPMI, Manipal 48.2%
Symbiosis IBM, Pune 16.9%
Karunya SoM, Coimbatore 2.0%
SCMS, Cochin 1.0%
1.2.2What are these named MBAs
From the graph above one could see that 321 institutes in
total offer named MBA/PGDM programmes. The graph below
provides data on the domains. While Finance tops with over
44 named programmes in that domain Tourism has the low-
est at 8. One reason could be the existence of a separate
programme, MTA, in that domain. The efficacy of a named
domain-specific MBA has been subject to debate and opin-
ions vary substantially across the spectrum, from it being very
good to being a money-making proposition for institutes.The
truth lies somewhere in between.
University Affiliated Institutes Stand Alone Institutes
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
General Management
(With Specializations)
Specialised Programmes
2712
106
215
429
Graph 2: GeneralVs Specialised
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
University Affiliated
Institutes
Stand-alone Institutes
15
38OTHERS
16
12DUAL DEGREE (E.G.
HR + FINANCE)
2
10AGRIBUSINESS
2
19RETAIL MANAGEMENT
17
21HUMAN RESOURCE /
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
11
28GLOBAL/INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS
14
27MARKETING
SALES
12
44FINANCE/BANKING/
INSURANCE
4
8TOURISM
13
8INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
Graph 2: Named MBA/PGDM

4. 6careers360 research 7careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
3.0 Faculty quality
The sine qua non for a good school is the quality of its faculty.
While a raging debate happens between the suitability of
practising managers as teachers vis-à-vis PhD-holders who
are primarily academics for teaching management, the need
for academic rigour is never questioned. But Indian schools do
lack good quality faculty as the table below shows:
Table 3.0 Percentage of PhD-holders to total faculty
Percentage % of Institutes
90- 100 1%
80- 90 7.0
60-80 13
40- 60 22
40 50%
3.1 Student Faculty Ratio
Student faculty ratio in a B-School varies depending upon the
focus of the programme as also the number of programmes
being offered. In good institutes, the ideal ratio is in the range
of 4 to 6 students per faculty, so that the interaction and
attention is optimum. The B-Schools that have this kind of an
environment are:
Table 3.1 Quality of interaction
B-School Student/Faculty Ratio
IIT Kharagpur (VGSOM) 5.8
IIM Raipur 6.0
IISWBM, Kolkata 6.1
IIFM Bhopal 6.3
IIM Ahmedabad 6.8
IIT Madras (DoMS) 7.6
FMS, Delhi 8.1
IIM Indore 8.7
Note: Computed using fulltime faculty and students including FPM scholars
Apart from IITs and IIMs where almost every faculty is a
PhD, the other noteworthy institutes are ISB Hyderabad and
Mohali (100%); NITIE Mumbai (97%) and FMS Delhi (93%).
Schools where the PhD faculty to faculty ratio is close to 0.9
(or 90%) include XLRI Jamshedpur; LIBA Chennai; IMT Ghazi-
abad; MDI Gurgaon, IMI Delhi, IIFT Delhi, IFIM Bhopal and XIM
Bhubhaneswar.
Table 6.0 Research output ofTop 20 B-Schools in India
Name of the Institute
Publications/
Year
Productivity*
Rank
Publication
Count Rank
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi 29.00 1 6
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore 20.33 2 12
Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Ghaziabad 27.00 3 8
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras 25.67 4 9
Department of Management Studies, Anna University, Chennai 12.67 5 17
Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay 22.00 6 11
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee 11.33 7 22
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) 51.33 8 3
Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad 40.00 9 4
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC) 72.00 10 2
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) 79.00 11 1
Institute of Financial Management Research 12.67 12 17
Department of Industrial and Management Engineering, IIT Kanpur 10.00 13 25
Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) 12.33 14 19
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) 27.67 15 7
Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur 9.33 16 27
National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) 20.00 17 13
Management Development Institute (MDI) 31.33 18 5
Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal 12.33 19 19
Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur 3.00 20 42
4.0 Accreditation
National and international organizations or independent
agencies prove to be a great help in assessing the education
quality and processes as they accredit the institutes. In 2013,
accreditation was made mandatory for all educational insti-
tutes through an executive order, after the Ministry of Human
Resource Development could not get a law to that effect
approved in Parliament. The executive order also showed an
incredible rise in the number of applications for accreditation
last year when annual request surged from 800 to nearly 3000
at the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
Independent international agencies are much sought after by
the best B-Schools in India.
Table 4.0 : Select schools with accreditation
B-School Key Accreditation
Indian Institute of Management,
Bangalore
EQUIS
TA Pai Management Institute,
Manipal
AACSB, NBA
Management Development
Institute, Gurgaon
AMBA, SAQS, NBA
Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad
EQUIS
International Management
Institute, Delhi
NBA, SAQS, AMBA
Indian School of Business,
Hyderabad
AASCB
Indian Institute of Management,
Lucknow
AMBA
Institute of Management
Technology, Ghaziabad
SAQS
Xavier Institute of Management,
Bhubaneswar
NBA, SAQS
IBS, Hyderabad NAAC, SAQS
5.0 Need for residential B-Schools
Bringing in the sense of community living, where scholars are
keen to share their learning, experiences, and knowledge is a
crucial aspect of management education. There is a dearth of
such B-Schools in the country. Among the top 200 B-Schools,
only 15 percent private B-Schools are fully residential where
more than 90 percent of the faculty members also stay in the
campus. The corresponding figure in public sector B-Schools
is much better, with 60 percent of the best 50 B-Schools being
fully residential. Management being a substantially experien-
tial domain, peer learning is the most important component
in the educational processes. Most MBA/PDGM assignments
focus on team work and demands working beyond the class-
room hours. Any arrangement that does not facilitate such a
learning might be an impediment to the learning process of
the student.
6.0 Research
Management research could be in the form of reports, books
and academic publications. In most B-Schools until recently it
is training (MDPS) that substituted research. Refereed publica-
tions as a discipline in Indian institutes is still in the budding
stage. Papers in acclaimed journals are concentrated in a
handful of select B-Schools. Publication promotes the open
exchange of information among the research community
and exposes the outcomes and techniques for its scrutiny.
The significance of publication also lies in the fact that it also
documents who is first with novel ideas or methods, is indica-
tive of productive use of research funds, and provides a record
by which a researcher and by extension the affiliated institu-
tion can be judged. Alongside is a list of top 20 institutes that
excel in paper publications in reputed journals of high impact
indexed in international databases: Web of Science and Sco-
pus in the last three years (2011-13).
If only publication count is taken into account, the B-Schools
that excel are IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Ahmedabad, ISB
Hyderabad, MDI Gurgaon, IIT Delhi (DMS), IIM Kozhikode, IMT
Ghaziabad, IIT Madras (DoMS) and IIM Lucknow. However, in
terms of publications per faculty, institutes such as IISc (DMS)
and Anna University (DMS) come up in the top five.
Institutes, especially those without substantial publication
record do argue that most international indexing services do
not take into account the domestic journals that many schools
do bring out. Such an argument is specious, since we are
operating in a global environment and only globally accept-
able benchmarks of learning must be taken into account. The
phenomenal growth of Chinese academic productivity, that
too in internationally bench-marked terms is a good example
for Indian schools to emulate. The country needs million
researchers to consistently bloom.
* Productivity is computed by total publication count by the author(s) while he/she is affiliated with the given institution as a core faculty member in the given period.

5. 8careers360 research 9careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
7.0 Academia-industry interface
Keeping in view that knowledge is the driving force for having
a competitive edge in the emerging and established econo-
mies, management institutes have undertaken innovative
measures in capitalising on their intellectual base. While only
20% of the B-Schools among the top 200 reported any effort in
having a database of novel products or services (inventions);
only 30-odd B-Schools gave information on entrepreneurship
cells, research/consultancy and patenting/licensing activities.
By far, the most active initiative in having an interface with
industry, apart from visiting faculty from the corporate sector,
was on Management Development Programmes. Some of the
institutes, the IIMs in particular, have ventured pro-actively in
creating start-up firms. The Centre for Innovation, Incubation
and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM Ahmedabad has close to
100 start-up firms. Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innova-
tion (CEI) IIM Calcutta; Malviya National Institute of Technol-
ogy, Department of Management Studies, Jaipur; Coimbatore
Institute of Management Technology, Coimbatore; and
Technology Business Incubator at MICA Ahmedabad are some
other initiatives.
There are range of schemes like Research Promotion
Scheme, Entrepreneur Development Cells, Industry -Institute
partnership cells, Research Parks,Technology Business Incuba-
tors, and Innovation Promotion Scheme offered by of govern-
ment bodies like AICTE, UGC, DSIR and DST that might help
the institutes to get full funding, if not at least seed funding
to kick-start these initiatives.
What
we
found
out
l According to the sample data, companies like IBM,
Infosys, Accenture, Oracle, TCS, and Cognizant Tech-
nology Solutions are the bulk recruiters at IIM A, B,
and C. And they recruit across Tier 1 and Tier 2 col-
leges as well.
l Global consulting firms like Boston Consulting
Group, McKinsey Company, Bain Company, AT
Kearney, Booz Company, Accenture and Deloitte
recruited for consultancy profiles and are restricted
to top schools.
l Many alumni took up roles in sales and marketing in
companies such as ITC Limited, Airtel and Supermax
and Procter and Gamble.
l According to the captured data, IIM A has 18.23 %,
IIM B 13.374%, IIM C 6.24.23 % of 2013 alumni living
abroad, whereas in IIM I,L and K this number varies
between 0-3 %.
l For good schools like University of Delhi (Faculty
of Management Studies-FMS), New Delhi and XLRI
Jamshedpur, majority of the alumni work in consult-
ing space (26.9% and 21.23 % respectively).
l XLRI Jamshedpur has 26.30 % of its 2013 alumni
going for HR role as per captured data.
Table 9.0 : Average Annual Salary acrossTop B-Schools
B-Schools
Average Domestic Salary
(Rs. 16-18 lakhs per annum)
Average Domestic Salary
(Rs. 12-15 lakhs per annum)
Average Domestic Salary
(Rs. 9-12 lakhs per annum)
Top (Public)
IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore,
FMS Delhi, JBIMS, Mumbai
IIM Lucknow, IIFT Delhi, IIM
Calcutta; IIT Bombay (SJSOM);
IIM Trichy; IIT Delhi (DMS); IIM
Kozhikode; RGIIM Shillong; IIM
Indore; IIM Raipur
IIM Ranchi; IIT Kharagpur
(VGSOM); IIM Kashipur; IIM
Udaipur; NITIE, Mumbai; SIMSREE,
Mumbai; IIM Rohtak
Top (Private)
ISB (Hyderabad, Mohali); SPJIMR,
Mumbai, XLRI Jamshedpur
NMIMS, Mumbai; MDI Gurgaon;
XIM Bhubhaneswar
SIBM Pune; IMT Ghaziabad; Great
Lakes, Chennai; IBS, Hyderabad;
IMI Delhi; TAPMI, Manipal;
Table 8.0: B-Schools and their Programme Fee (Rs lakhs)
up to 2.0 FMS, Delhi
SIMSREE,
Mumbai
DMS, NITTrichy JBIMS, Mumbai
2.1 - 5.0
IIT Madras
(DoMS)
Amrita SoB,
Coimbatore
IIT Delhi (DMS)
IIT Roorkee
(DMS)
IRMA (Anand)
5.1 - 7.5 IISWBM, Kolkata
IIT Kharagpur
(VGSOM)
NITIE, Mumbai IIFT, Delhi IPE, Hyderabad NMIMS, Mumbai GIM, Goa
7.6 - 9.0 LIBA, Chennai
Nirma University
(IoM)
IIM Shillong IIM Kashipur
IIT Bombay
(SJMSOM)
BIMTECH,
Greater Noida
PSG IoM,
Coimbatore
9.1 - 10.0 IIM Ranchi IIM Udaipur IIM Rohtak IFIM Bangalore IIM Raipur
XIM
Bhubaneswar
IFMR Chennai
10.1 - 12.0 IIMTrichy IIM Lucknow FORE SoM, Delhi SPJIMR Mumbai SIBM, Pune
12.1 - 14.0 IBS, Hyderabad IMT, Ghaziabad IIM Kozhikode IIM, Indore IMI, Delhi TAPMI, Manipal
14.1 - 17.0
XLRI,
Jamshedpur
MDI, Gurgaon IIM Ahmedabad
Great Lakes,
Chennai
IIM Calcutta IIM Bangalore
24.0
ISB, Hyderabad
and Mohali
8.0 Cost of management education
Management is a combination of Arts, Commerce and Sci-
ence. Further, the increasing number of specializations and
hands-on training exposure for an MBA candidate adds to the
complexity of not having a straight answer to‘What should be
the ideal cost of a full-time management programme?’
In 2007, the best of the management institutes offered the
coveted management degree/diploma in less than Rs. 5 lakhs.
Since then there has been a steady increase every year in both
public and private institutes barring some, particularly at the
university management departments. The average fee in
private institutions (Careers360 top 100 institutes in 2013-14)
stands at 5.43 lakhs, while the corresponding figure for public
institutions (Careers360 top 50 in 2013-14) is 5.3 lakhs.Table
8.0 is indicative of the fee-structure in various institutes.
As theTable below shows cost too varies across the domain.
Public schools invariably are the lowest cost options with an
FMS Delhi degree costing less than a lakh of rupees for the
entire programme. On the other hand most IIMs cost upwards
of 10 lakhs and some of the top players go up to 17- 18 lakhs
for a two-year programmes. In an opportunity- starved coun-
try like ours, should education be this prohibitively expensive
is a question for which Institutions and academicians have
no direct answer. But cost does remain a crucial factor in the
selection of institute by most students, but is not the sole
deciding factor.
9.0 Placements and RoI
The primary concern for most of the parents, more than the
students, is on salary that his/her ward is likely to get after
completing the course. Though job placements have seen an
upward curve this year, it does not seem to create an aura of
hope.The graduates who received offers of Rs 4 lakh annually
or less are cautioning the MBA aspirants in the wake of rising
fees, and high interest rates on education loans thus scripting
a complex algorithm to resolve their EMI payout.
The return on investment (RoI) works out to be a preferred
tool while selecting a B-School, given that the quality of
education is not affected significantly. Since the outcome
of management education is lifelong, factoring in the status
of alumni after his passing out and his/her foregone salary
should be crucial in computing the RoI. However, owing to
data insufficiency, making use of available information on
the programme fees and the average remuneration offered,
substitutes for the same.Table 9.0 gives a list of such institutes
that score high on average placements
But if one attempts to calculate an RoI based on cost/
average annual salary most of these schools may not be very
attractive proposition especially for the students in the lowest
quartile. But the charm of an MBA still lures them on.
9.1 Alumni involvement
Traditionally average salary is the preferred means to exam-
ine the value of the student. While it has its own merit and
standing, it is the quality of companies that come to campus,
the kind of profiles that students get that matters the most in
the long run. We have attempted to capture both the details
based on publicly available profiles of B-Schools’ alumni on
LinkedIn, the popular social media site for professionals (Read
more about the process in the methodology section).
9.2What is on offer
This year we have gathered alumni profiles for 2010, 2011,
2012 and 2013. We have made individual profiles for 200+
colleges that have an alumni presence. For a detailed look
at the alumni and profiles of all the colleges ranked do visit
our portal www.bschool.careers360.com. The website also
contains pen-pictures of over 100 companies that have large
recruitments from B-Schools.
An MBA is a costly proposition. So it is only in the fitness of
things that a student gets all the possible assistance so that
he or she decides right and decides better. The incorporation
of alumni component into the ranking process is a step in
that direction.

6. 10careers360 research 11careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
Chronologyofevents
December 2010
AICTE brings up a new set of notifications on PGDM
programmes
January – July 2010
Dr Ramana, ITM group, EPSI, AIMS and others file a
series of petition challenging the validity of the noti-
fication. Relief for a year follows which is extended
each year and continues even now until 2014-15.
May - 2013
Supreme Court comes up with an order which makes
AICTE an advisory body and treats all affiliated col-
leges as part of universities. It leaves the status of
PGDM and FPM in thin air
UGC in the meantime comes up with its own set of
half-baked regulations.
January 2014
Based on an I/O in the EPSI case, Supreme Court
orders the continuation of PGDM administration by
AICTE.
An order to the same effect was passed on the
Orissa Technical Educators Association as well.
April 17 2014
In Orissa Technical Association case, in a clarifica-
tory order the Supreme Court restores the powers of
AICTE for the academic year 2014-15
The core issues are:
l Status of Technical Education in the light of May
25, 2013 judgment
l The status of PGDM/FPM programmes as recog-
nized by AIU (this is contingent upon approval by
AICTE)
l The status of rules notified by AICTE on Decem-
ber 2010 and its impact on PGDM programme
l What next on
n Duration
n Entrance exam Admission process
n Approval
n Fee and Session Timing
10.0 Regulatory framework for the domain
This sector has been drastically impacted by judicial activ-
ism at different times. As Prof. S.S Mantha, Chairman, AICTE
argues it is essential that the anomalies, pointed out by the
Bharadhisan University versus AICTE, 2001 judgment must be
countered by a comprehensive legislation that would bring
all forms of technical education under the purview of AICTE,
which must necessarily include the venerable IITS. Institu-
tional elitism and the perpetual need to seek exceptions must
go away.
Technical education has been mauled by three major
judgments. The Bhartidasan judgment, took universities out
of AICTE jurisdiction. The Delhi High Court’s interim judg-
ment resulted in distance education B.Tech programme. The
Supreme Court judgment by Justice Chauhan took away both
management and engineering and even affiliated colleges
outside the purview of AICTE. This was partially restored for a
year by another bench of the same court.
And in a dramatic usurpation of turf, University Grants com-
mission came up with regulations for technical education as
well. An institution that does not even have complete data on
the number affiliated Arts and Science colleges in the country,
now wants to regulate technical institutions. And the Ministry
of HRD was a mute spectator to the emasculation of one its
own autonomous body by another, until a court order came
to AICTE’s rescue partly.
A comprehensive and foolproof legislation is the need of
the hour and AICTE’s mandate to regulate technical education
must be respected says Prof. A. Sethuraman, Vice Chancellor,
SASTRA University, Thanjavur.
Way forward
The regulatory scenario is just not inviting. Seats in Tier-2
schools almost go begging. Even top-tier schools are not able
to place all their students due to batch size expansion. The
market for MBA/PGDM is undergoing drastic changes.
The questions before the educators are
●● 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 students need an answer. They deserve it! u
Key Issues for Discussion
●● The regulatory regime is now held hostage to one-year reprieves offered
by courts. EPSI is fighting a valiant battle. What is the next move and
what needs to be done to ensure regulatory clarity?
●● There has been a huge row about RoI from an MBA/PGDM programme.
Is there a fair way to balance the concern of students and schools?
●● How do affiliated MBA schools overcome or work around the curriculum
issue? Should B-Schools engage in reinventing the wheel or consider
novelty in programme offerings (say multi-disciplines)?
●● Is there enough freedom to get into industry collaborations, especially
of long-term nature? How to address regulatory hindrances, if any?
●● Shouldn’t the student have the power to move from one institution to
the other in case he/she is not satisfied with the promises made by the
institute?
●● Barring 10-12 B-Schools that have well-funded PhD programmes, none
of the schools has invested in a feeder faculty programme. How will we
get good faculty members in adequate numbers?

7. 12careers360 research
Status Report B-Schools
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