If the latest report of ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) on B-Schools in India is anything to go by, then the management education in India is a disaster. The study points out that barring a handful of top business schools like the government run IIMs and other few, most of 5,500 B schools in the country are producing sub-par graduates who are largely un-employable. Expressing concern over the decay in the standards of these B-schools, many of which are not properly regulated, the study by the ASSOCHAM Education Committee (AEC) notes that only 7 percent of the graduates are actually employable in India, excepting graduates from IIMs.
The concerns over the employability of our B-School graduates are not new. Indeed, mushrooming of management colleges due to commercialization of education, the euphoria surrounding distance-education and no guaranteed placements in the most B and C category B-Schools are taking the sheen away from this most converted degree. In the last five years, the number of B-school seats has tripled. In 2015-16, these schools offered 5, 20, 000 seats in MBA courses, compared to 3, 60, 000 in 2011-12. In addition to that, on an average each student spent nearly Rs 3 to Rs 5 lakh on a two-year MBA program, only to get a salary that ranges between Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000. Today, nobody can deny that Indian management education suffers from many quality issues, but the system overall is characterized by "pinnacles of excellence in a sea of mediocrity," as it does reasonably well by some international comparisons.
Identifying management institutions that are providing out of the box facilities to students, in this issue of the Higher Education Review, we publish our third edition of "Management College of the Year," a yearly practice that we have done since our inception. With a comprehensive set of B-schools in the country that have performed well in various parameters, we have categorized each entry by understanding the institute's key strength under the title "Management College of the Year, 2016." On the cover, we feature Sona School of Management, Salem that has made its presence in a global context through its involvement in research, consultancy, teaching and training.
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