Mumbai: In the state, the aspirants seem to be uninterested with the management education. As per sources, the state technical board data reveals that only 20,757 students have applied for MBA/MSS courses in the state this year, which is less than half of last year's 42,490 applicants. Previous year only 32,825 candidates had taken admission, out of total applied candidates. As per current information more than half of the state's 46,000 MBA / MMS seats are likely to be unoccupied.
In management programme, the first year of admissions will be made on the basis of Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) scores. A directorate of technical education official said, this year the list of applicants also include those candidates who have taken other management entrance tests, such as the JMET, XAT, MAT, ATMA and CAT for IIMs. In spite of that the numbers of applications have not been increased this year.
As per market advisor conclusion, the increased demand for market oriented postgraduate diploma courses could be the reason behind the lack of interest among students, but experts blame the apathetic industry response during campus placements.
S S Mantha, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education, stated that the investment in these courses, in terms of fees, was higher, whereas, the placement offers were not promising. He also added that the ratio of students who had taken CMAT were higher in Maharashtra, in the third edition held in May. 'Tailor-made' PG diploma courses should be blamed, say officials.
With such extreme fall in the number of applications for MBA / MSS courses, the state management institutes are in shock. Dayanand Meshram, Joint Director, Directorate of Technical Education said that students might be pursuing the tailor-made PGDM Courses, as they were more industry oriented. He also said that their syllabus was updated from time to time and admissions were conducted at institute level. Last year, around 12,000 students were enrolled for PGDM courses in the state.
S S Mantha, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education also quoted, “A general country-wide trend of engineering students preferring Masters in core engineering groups to MBA, as another reason for the low number of applicants”. Although, he also said that other regions in the country have not seen such a drastic drop in student response.
Management Institutes are in shock due to the current low figures. Apoorva Palkar, President, Consortium of Management Education stated There is a possibility that the notification of admission has not reached all students in the state. The numbers are very low. There have to be more MBA aspirants in the state than what the figures depict. She also quoted, Corporates do require MBAs. But the vacant seats every year are sending a wrong signal to students, dissuading them from pursuing the course.
