Every year lakhs of students take admission in B-Schools across the country in the hopes of getting a quality education. One that would enable them for a job in a premier industry and brand with a top-notch salary package as part of the campus placements. However, as per a recent report, less than 7% of MBA graduates are employable. As per AICTE data, as of 2018, less than 60% actually get placed post their education completion. The complexity in the system is at multiple levels that need immediate attention for resolution.

  1. Lack of Entrance Test Standardization

In the US, a GMAT Score decides which B-School the student would be able to take admission in. However, in India, with each business school allowed to create their own criteria for admissions and an admission test that goes with it. What complicates the matter is that post completion of education, companies looking to hire MBA graduates, don’t know how to compute this data point to weigh it against other admission tests. For example, more than 2 lakh students take a CAT Test each year for roughly 4300 seats. That’s a 1.8% chance of getting a seat. Whereas an XAT admission test gets roughly 90,000 applicants each year for 180 seats in XLRI, Jamshedpur. That’s a 0.2% chance. Outside XLRI, more than 150 b-schools accept admissions based on XAT scores, skewing the percentages completely. Unlike a standardised test, comparing the abilities of one candidate against another then becomes impossible simply due to the large extent of the variable data.

  1. Lack of Quality Faculty

A teaching faculty with strong industry exposure is the prominent factor that defines the quality of education in a B-School. Since a Faculty with required industry exposure are few, they are expensive to hire. Hence, many b-schools skip on hiring such faculty members. Students in such a scenario lose out on the possibility of learning from an experienced professional’s years of experience running or leading a business. Without this intricate knowledge, students are left with few options for gaining such practical knowledge and depend heavily on internships.

  1. Industry Connect or the lack of it

A good B-School invests heavily in maintaining strong industry relationships with companies and their business leaders. As such the b-schools are then able to invite industry and business leaders as guest lecturers or visiting faculty. The key aspect of this is that students get to learn first hand from the experience of such leaders and gain understanding the need of the companies and businesses from the graduates. Gaining this insight at an early stage in the course allows students to prepare better for the real world opportunities and roadblocks. This, unfortunately, is missing in various B-Schools and students missing out on it are at a disadvantage.

  1. Professional Experience

In the US and Europe in general, MBA is pursued by professionals with a few years of experience. The average age for an MBA graduate is usually in the mid-30s in most US or European B-Schools. Since college education already very expensive in US & Europe, a post-graduation or an MBA is usually pursued by working professionals who wish to further their career. The schools also prefer students with work experience as it drastically improves the quality of discourse in the class. However, in India, the trend of joining an MBA school without any experience has made the hiring companies realise that time investments would be required to upskill students and make them job ready. This additional cost investment pushes companies to choose experienced professionals with MBA degrees rather than hiring fresh postgraduates.  

One will never hear of poor quality graduates from Kellogs, Wharton or INSEAD simply because schools like these mandate work experience as a primary requisite for admission.

  1. India’s employment crisis

A recent report stated that more than 2.8 crore people applied for roughly 90,000 railways jobs. Similarly, over the years while the economic state of the country has been improving, however not much has changed in terms of employability of the youth. Mass unemployment is rampant. The startup ecosystem, Make in India, Digital India and various other government employment schemes have pushed forward to create jobs in India however not at the desired scale or with results.

  1. Lack of Benchmarked practices

Long gone are the days when theoretical knowledge of MBA concepts was considered enough. What the industry now seeks is students who can work in the companies from day one. Job readiness is the ask of the times and students who join poor quality B-schools lack such skills. This makes a majority of the graduate students unemployable. While most students willing to pursue MBA dream of plush jobs in investment banking or consulting, students from bad quality b-schools end up in non-preferred domains with less paying jobs that ultimately lead to dissatisfaction.

  1. Old Syllabus


There is a wide gap in what is being taught at the institutions and what is being demanded in the industry. This widening gap is a major concern for companies due to which campus placements take a hit leading to further reduction in placement numbers for the school. Taking a cue from top b-schools across the world, one must carefully choose a B-School that is known to offer a curriculum based on what the industry seeks rather than simply joining a school because of its prominence. Many erstwhile famous private institutes have been a victim of this vicious cycle. Over the years, placement numbers or packages being offered in various such institutes have reduced, a clear indicator that the quality of education is not up to the mark.

Ultimately, students need to do thorough research before making a decision. Joining any random b-school can be a costly affair that may not produce the desired results in the long run.  One must look at the curriculum being offered in the B-School, faculty qualifications, industry experience, relationships that the school maintains in the industry, visiting faculty, level of exposure in the industry, whether the school focuses on job-readiness and employability or completing the course are all aspects that have a very strong impact on the student’s future. Many B-schools promise the world and only once the student has joined do they realise the reality. We advise all students to make an informed decision before taking the plunge. One should also consider alumni feedback, recent placements, brand associations,  industry connect, brands that offer internship opportunities in the school, program details and other such necessary details.

Luxury Connect Business School – India’s first and only luxury B-School offering students world-class luxury education in India with award-winning faculty, industry connect with brand leaders and professionals and 100% internships to make students job-ready from day one with placements in some of the most prominent luxury brands’ in the world.

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