B-school woes: Fresh MBAs in India earn less than Rs 10,000, ASSOCHAM reveals

Except for a few top MBA colleges, most Business schools (B-schools) in India are churning out sub-par graduates. An ASSOCHAM study has revealed that these "largely un-employable" MBA graduates are earning less than Rs 10,000 a month - that too, only if they manage to get placed.

"Barring a handful of top Business schools like the government-run IIMs and few others, most of the 5,500 B-schools in the country are producing sub-par graduates who are largely un-employable resulting in these pass-outs earning less than Rs 10,000 a month, if at all they find placements," states the study which was released on 27 April.

The ASSOCHAM Education Committee (AEC) also pointed out how only 7 per cent of MBA graduates from Indian business schools - excluding those from the top 20 schools - get a job straight after completing their course.

Currently, India has more than 5,500 B-schools, excluding unapproved institutes.

"Around 220 B-schools had shut down in the last two year in cities such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Dehradun etc. And at least 120 more are expected to wind up in 2016. Low education quality coupled with the economic slowdown, from 2014 to 2016, campus recruitment have gone down by a whopping 45 per cent," states the report.

"There are more seats than the takers in the B-schools. This is not surprising in the wake of poor placement records of the pass-outs," ASSOCHAM Secretary General Mr D S Rawat said.

Over the past five years, the number of B-school seats has tripled. In 2015-16, these schools offered a total of 5,20,000 seats in MBA courses, compared to 3,60,000 in 2011-12.

The average package of an MBA student from Tier 2 and Tier 3 college is around Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000. These students spend anywhere between Rs 3 to Rs 5 lakh on a two-year MBA programme.

"Even the quality of IIM/IIT students coming out now compared to the last 15 years has come down due to the quality of school education. The faculty is also another problem as few people enter the teaching profession due to low salaries and the entire eco-system needs to be revamped," said the report.