Slowdown blues hit Business school hiring

Mumbai: The scenario in B category B-school campus hiring is grim this year because of the economic slowdown and the mushrooming of such schools.

Only 18 per cent of students got placement this year, while the salary packages which are offered at B-schools and engineering colleges are also being curtailed by 40-45 per cent according to Assocham’s latest assessment.

There has not been any response from the manufacturing sector but the services sectors such as financial, IT & ITES are offering some jobs, according to the chamber’s paper titled “Appetite for MBA tumbles down.”

It said in spite of the increase in number of B-schools across the country, the common test for admission (CAT) to elite B-schools of the country, saw a decline of 8.5 per cent in 2014 from 9.5 per cent in 2013.

While the total number of applicants stood at 1.85 lakh in 2014, compared with 1.94 lakh in 2013, the MBA seats in India grew almost four-fold from 95,000 in 2006-07 to 4,68,000 in 2013, resulting in a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30-35 per cent and over-capacity.

“Unfortunately, job opportunities for MBAs have not grown in the same proportion,” the paper said.

D.S. Rawat, director general, Assocham said, “many parents and students are re-thinking on investing 2-3 years and several lakh in a course, with the demand and placement of MBA graduates not as good as before due to slowdown. Around 450 institutions have become defunct as they are not getting enough students to be viable”.

He said, a large number of the B-schools and engineering colleges are not able to attract students. More than 220 B-schools have already closed down in 2013 in the major cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Dehradun etc. Another 95 are struggling for their survival, according to the Assocham report.