Barring a handful of top business schools, such as the government-run IIMs and a few others, most of the 5,500 b-schools in India are producing sub-par graduates, who are largely unemployable.

Most of the graduates from these institutions earn less than ₹10,000 a month, if at all they find placements, industry body Assocham said on Wednesday.

7% employability Expressing concern over the low standards of these b-schools, many of whom are not properly regulated, a study by the Assocham Education Committee (AEC) noted that only 7 per cent of management graduates are employable in India, other than the candidates from top 20 b-schools, including IIMs.

India has at least 5,500 b-schools in operation now, excluding unapproved institutes. Around 220 of them closed down in the last two years in cities such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Dehradun, etc. Another 120 are expected to wind up in 2016.

Due to low education quality, coupled with economic slowdown from 2014 to 2016, campus recruitments have gone down by 45 per cent.

Excess seats “There are more seats than takers in b-schools. This is not surprising in view of the poor placement records of passouts,” Assocham Secretary General DS Rawat said.

In 2015-16, these schools offered a total of 5.20 lakh seats in MBA courses, compared with 3.60 lakh 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 study said.

“The need to update and retrain faculty in emerging global business perspectives is practically absent in many b-schools, often making the course content redundant,” it added.

While, on an average, a student would spend nearly ₹3 to 5 lakh on a two-year MBA programme, their current monthly salary is a measly ₹8,000 to 10,000. Even the quality of current IIM/IIT students compared to those in the last 15 years has come down due to the poor quality of school education, it said.

The standard of the faculty is another problem as few talented people enter the teaching profession due to low salaries. The entire ecosystem needs to be revamped, the study said.

Industry disconnect 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 3 colleges. 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 per cent do not find jobs and many get into jobs well below their technical qualifications. 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 per cent. About 97 per cent of engineers aspire for a job in IT and core engineering. However, only 18.43 per cent are employable in IT and 7.49 per cent in core engineering, the study said.

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