The MBA degree from Indian B-schools is increasingly losing its allure with students preferring to opt for job-ready exams, such as those conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection for banking and the Staff Selection Commission for government jobs.

According to an Assocham study, campus recruitment of MBA graduates has gone down by around 40 per cent over the last few years.

This trend is underlined by the fact that registrations for the Common Admission Test (CAT), for admission into the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other premier business schools in India, are down to a new low although the number of seats at the IIMs have increased. In 2014, around 1.87 lakh candidates registered for the CAT, a steep fall from the 2.76 lakh registrations in 2008.

Sharp rise in fees

Allwin Agnel, founder of PaGaLGuY, the largest community portal for MBA aspirants, said most business schools have raised their fees sharply over the last few years.

Also, most Indian companies, he said, are not looking to recruit students at very high pay packages and find better value in recruiting from top undergraduate colleges and engineering institutes.

With the number of opportunities coming down in private sector jobs, the return on investment on an MBA may not be that attractive for students, who may delay their plans in pursuing the course, said Prof MP Sebastian, Admission Chair, IIM Kozhikode.

With the number of CAT aspirants shrinking, PaGaLGuY started a new section last month to help candidates crack the entrance exams and get government and bank probationary officer jobs. The website has seen monthly interaction/discussion numbers growing at around 1,10,000 for bank PO aspirants, and to around 1,42,000 for those looking to clear the Staff Selection Commission exam, for which an average of 15 lakh candidates take the test every year.

According to Agnel, a number of MBA aspirants now prefer these platforms to land government jobs as the “value of money” component is significantly higher, with a faster break-even and job security.

However, interestingly, the number of Indian students giving GMAT, an admission test for global B-schools, grew 12 per cent in 2013-14, said Gaurav Srivastava, Director – Market Development, South Asia Graduate Management Admission Council.

International exposure

Indian students are increasingly seeking international exposure in global business schools as they are able to provide a better learning experience, better placements, and have students hailing from different work profiles and countries, says Agnel.

On the other hand, in Indian business schools, a majority of the students come from an engineering or IT background, which hampers the overall quality of the programme.

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