Educationists and other stakeholders of MBA programmes need to work on industry perception of the MBA that the graduates B-schools churn out are not ready for work, urged Sangeet Chowfla, Global President and CEO, Graduate Management Admission Council, while delivering the inaugural address at the sixth Indian Management Conclave 2015 held at the ISB campus here.

The theme of the conclave is ‘enhancing B-school competitiveness’.

Chowfla quoted a Gallup study which said 96 per cent of chief academic officers in higher educational institutions said their students are pretty ready for work, with what they are taught. However, another study by Gallup showed that only 36 per cent of business leaders agreed or strongly agreed that those they hire are actually ready for work.

“This is industry perception of the product and we need to close the gap and deal with this perception,” said Chowfla.

Chowfla said a lot of good things are indeed happening. “We talked to graduates the month before they graduate and asked them if they have a job: in 2010, during the economic downturn, it was only 4 out of 10, now it’s up to 60 per cent, while salaries which also declined in 2010, have also gone up. The MBA is delivering on some of the things it’s trying to do but we are still stuck in this conversation of 2010 and not managing it effectively.”

Referring to GMAC’s takeover of the NMAT, the Narsee Monjee Institute’s test last year, Chowfla said it is looking to consolidate the fragmentation of testing platforms.

“The goal is to bring testing regimes that add more diversity to the mix in India. NMAT is lot more diverse than the CAT and GMAT. Last year, 30 per cent (who took the test) were women. It is also a lot less engineering-centric,” he said. As of now, 12 schools are adopting the NMAT courses. Soon, GMAC will also introduce one more assessment for a global business school.

The Guest of Honour, Hemant Kanoria, CMD, Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd, said, “The professionals from the management schools are not equipped with a critical thinking process, which are required to address the challenges faced by different sectors.”

He urged the academics present to infuse critical thinking amongst the management students.

Management education Sharing his thoughts on what value a management education can bring, Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB, said it was time for B-Schools to inculcate among their students what he called the VEIL or a sense of values, a sense for the environment, sensitivity to inequities in society and finally adhering to the law of the land. “Without these we cannot create global competitiveness,” he added.

Amit Agnihotri of MBAUniverse.com and convenor of the conclave, said that there is intense competition within existing players with 3,800 MBA programmes; there is a rise in ‘bargaining power of buyers’ , the students; a rising threat of substitutes, such as MOOCs; the threat of new entrants such as foreign B-schools. In this context, B–Schools need to get more competitive and enhance their offerings.

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