B-schools reduce seats, cut fees to attract students

Tough admission season ahead

With management courses falling out of favour, Ahmedabad-based United World School of Business (UWB) has brought down the number of seats for MBA from 240 last year to 180 this year. The institute says more seats are putting a strain on its resources.

“Students do not want to get into management education. In such a scenario, it would not be right for us to put pressure on the marketing team to get students for 240 seats. We have to maintain a certain standard. We will not lower the standard just to fill the seats. Hence, we brought down the number of seats,” said Ritesh Hada, UWB managing director.

Besides, the number of students joining courses after getting admission offers has also come down 25 per cent this year, Hada added. UWB had recently increased its admission fee for MBA from Rs 4.75 lakh last year to Rs 5 lakh this year.

Many B-schools across the country are also feeling the pinch. A B-school in the National Capital Region has not only lowered its fee by Rs 25,000 but is also planning to reduce the number of seats.

Industry players say it could be a tough admission season for B-schools this year. Barring the top 100 schools, a majority of them is finding it difficult to fill seats. Admissions will get over by mid-June. “The admission season does not look very promising this year, too. Thanks to the not-so-impressive placements and economic growth, it will be difficult to convince students to join a B-school. Except the top ones, others are in for difficult times,” said H Chaturvedi, director Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida. Chaturvedi says only 200,000 of about 400,000 MBA seats will be filled this year. “The situation cannot improve unless the economy shows sizeable growth,” he added.

However, B-schools are making all efforts for a decent admission season. Many schools have even approached MBA coaching institutes in a bid to reach out to students. While some are distributing pamphlets and requesting coaching institutes to spread a word about them, others have roped in admission agents.

“B-schools resort to all kinds of inducements. We have warned students about them. We have our own list of good B-schools, which we have prepared on the basis of their faculty and placement track record, and we recommend our students only those schools,” said Sai Kumar Swamy, director, Triumphant Institute of Management Education, Delhi.

Last year, of 45,700 MBA seats available in Maharashtra, only 12,800 were filled last year. This resulted in many B-schools — as many as 35 — converting minority quota seats into general category seats.

For the first time in the last three years, the number of new management and engineering and technology institutes opening has come down by half.

In FY12, 892 new management and engineering and technology institutes were opened in India, and 626 new institutions were set up in FY13. In FY14, only 494 new institutes have so far sought permission from the All India Council for Technical Education.