B-Schools find few takers in Rajasthan

Looks like the big city buzz has got the better of students, who are rushing to cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Ghaziabad.
Or is it something else?

For 9,000 seats, 85 colleges, just 84 students are in the fate of management colleges affiliated to Rajasthan Technical University. Figures were released by state coordinator of Central Management Aptitude Test on the basis of the number of students appeared in the counseling concluded on Thursday.

The poor turnout has given sleepless nights to the management colleges’ administration many of whom have not received a single student for the session 2014-15. Already this year 10 colleges have been kept out of the counseling process, which only indicates that they have applied for closure. Further this situation will lead to closure of more colleges in coming weeks.

Dhirendra Sharma, state coordinator for Common Management Admission Test (CMAT), said the only way they can pull some students is through direct admissions. “I will ask the state education department to allow these colleges to start fee admission session, which means that any students can walk into colleges and seek admission without appearing in any entrance test,” said Sharma.

Experts said if the trend will continue the B-schools may soon become a thing of the past with the sharp decline in number of students and colleges. The boom in the corporate sector saw the emergence of B-schools in Rajasthan in 2005. Initially, the response was tremendous. However, post 2008-2009, when the corporate sector faced a tough time, several thousand management students’ dreams were shattered.

Since 2005, the management colleges saw a growth of 30% every year. During this period, the number of management colleges also rose from 60 to 137. It touched 150 in 2010 and at present it was reduced to 85 colleges. Deciphering the poor turnout, Sharma said, “Most of the students are making a beeline for cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Ghaziabad for big city exposure and this has done the damage.” Another challenge is posed by private universities. According to an estimate, 34 private universities have over 4,000 management seats.

Hitting at the root cause of the problem, Shashikant Singhi, director of Poornima Group of Colleges, said, “Our syllabus is not strong enough to compete with that of Mumbai or Delhi. The little scope for innovation in MBA course is also denting our prospects which is leading to failure in meeting the demand of the corporate sector.”

The technical education department, however, has passed on the buck to the management of these colleges. “Few of them have miserably failed to provide quality education. We were shocked to know that some of them were running MBA classes in a garage,” said an education official.

Date: May 25, 2014

Source: TOI