Introspection on the state of management education in India - issues and

problems

Paper presented at the international conference on re-engineering of Management education

held at
Department of Management, Karnataka State Open University, Mysore on
8th and 9th April 2011

Under the sub theme

Strategy to revive Management education

Dr.K.S.Chandrasekar, Professor and Head, Institute of Management in Kerala

University of Kerala, Trivandrum 695034
kscnair@gmail.com

Mr.C.S. Siva Prakash, Institute of Management in Kerala, University of Kerala,

Trivandrum 695034
sivaprakashcs@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Indian universities offering commerce and management programmes have

understood of late the necessity to co-exist with the industry. There have been many comments
on universities sending student outputs which are not immediately employable by the industry
and they in turn have to educate the students to the requirements of the industry. In this context,
the universities have realized the need to incorporate the industry professionals into the
curriculum aspects and overall administration related aspects. This is on the contrary to
expectations among the conservative educationists in the country. This paper will hence analyse
the need for the interaction, the challenges that are faced by the universities and the future
course of action needed.

INTRODUCTION

Management education in India had reached a mind boggling pace with new management
schools opening almost every month in some part of the country. While the demand for
management education had been going up at a similar rate, students still find it difficult to
choose the right ones except the premier institutes, which maintain very high standards in terms
of selecting candidates. Moreover, in the post liberalisation era the entry of transnational had
pushed up manpower requirements in the field of management. Again while there is no dearth of
management graduates in India the demand for management education had been rising with the
need for an IT-MBA qualification. The high salary structures coupled with an opportunity to
work in globally oriented corporate structures many private institutions have acquired the
"premier" tag by turning out MBAs who have received world class management education
within India. Business schools have now become a business proposition as such. As the private
sector has upped and replaced the bureaucracy and public sector on all status-related parameters,
as the vast middle class has decided to be more tuned to be materialistic and as India has been
recognised into the global economy, a management degree has become the hottest and most
coveted academic qualification in the country.

In late fifties, four leading universities of India viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai
started offering part time courses in management at post graduation level for working executives.
As these courses become popular, it was followed by various other universities. The Indian
institutes of Management were established at Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bangalore and Lucknow to
offer full time courses of two years duration for fresh graduates. Within the university system,
the faculty of management studies of university of Delhi was the first to launch its full time
MBA programme for fresh graduates in 1967, which was followed by several other universities
in India. A good number of universities started offering part time and correspondence courses in
management. The Indira Gandhi National Open University offers a wide range of courses in
management. It offers specialized diploma programmes in human resource management,
financial management, operation Management and Marketing Management etc. in addition to
M.B.A. degree programme through distant learning system. Kota Open University also offers
various programmes in management through Open University system. All India Management
Association is another professional body, which offers courses and programmes through distant
education mode. Other universities that offer MBA through distance mode are: IGNOU,
Alagappa University, Annamalai University, Bharathiar University, University of Madras, TN
Open University, Kerala University etc., to name a few. Various universities and institutions
recognised by All India Council for Technical Education impart training in management at
various levels. The programmes cover not only Business Management and Industrial
Administration but also other areas such as hospital management, International management,
Computer management, Co-operative management, agricultural management, financial
management, personnel management, hostel management and administration of public
enterprises etc.

While in the early 1990s, there were only a handful of management schools in the country,
churning out less than a thousand management graduates each year, a Supreme Court judgment
in 1993 has however, led to a surge in the number of management schools which seem to have
come to a saturation level now. As of today, there are more than 3000 known management
schools spread across the country, producing around 5,00,000 management graduates annually.
There is no denying the fact that IIM’s are the best in the business. There are many university
departments, affiliated institutions and other private institutions which are becoming competitive
over the years in terms of the parameters like pedagogy, infrastructure, staff strength, research
and consultancy. For the students who are having work experience and GMAT scores, the
institute like Indian School of Business (ISB) is now a better bet. Only thing is the fees which is
quite high for a one year programme.

Hence it is advised with a boom in the market place and a good monsoon, better productivity and
results, organisations will continue to take management graduates who are suited to their need
and for that prosperous candidates should choose an institution which can take them to greater
heights. There are multitudes of reasons for Management supplanting the other careers in recent
years. Some of them can be enumerated as below:
1. In the last 8-10 years, the Private Sector in India has seen a massive boom that was largely
unprecedented.
2. The Government of India started its economic reforms progamme in 1991, which in turn, has
enthused the demand for young management graduates as never before. The
salaries/remuneration offered to management graduates are the highest in India (the recent
salary figure has touched the - Rs.2Crore per annum - mark, dollar equivalent).
3. Most people want to do something more challenging than mere mundane 9 - 5 jobs, offering
much lesser salaries.
4. The feeling in the Industry is that without proper knowledge of management, it's difficult to
survive in the years to come.
5. One of the reasons is also that many of the faculty are not exposed to the trimester system
and updating the curriculum is also one of the important aspect which needs to be given
importance by institutes considering the fact that there are sudden changes in the
environment.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Dharni P. Sinha1 (2004) quoted that Institutions of excellence thrive on autonomy, innovation
and empowerment. Worldwide, they are self-driven and self-governed, pursuing growth on their
own terms. Indian management education is at the crossroads; it can register sustained growth
only by focussing on such areas as development of competent faculty, promotion of basic and
applied research, encouraging B-schools to meet sectoral demands, making corporates fund and
strengthen management education, and encouraging B-Schools to excel globally. In less than 50
years, `management' has emerged as a vibrant area of professional education. Half a million
candidates compete annually for the 1,00,000 seats. With demand for management education on
the rise, its qualitative growth needs serious attention. This requires immediate attention by both
universities and institutions imparting management education.

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore2 (IIMB) set up FII (Forum for Industrial
Interaction). The Forum attempts to help enhance the visibility of the companies on campus as
well as of the institute in the industry. The Forum, on a routine basis organizes:

• Workshops on specific business management issues

• Panel discussions on contemporary management and technology issues
• Informal chat sessions with industry leaders
• Formal dinners with vary focused group discussions
• Corporate leadership series
• IIMB invitation Seminar (IIMBiS)
• Hard talks-debates on controversial issues
• Seminars and talks by functional managers and area experts

P. K. Doraiswamy3 mentioned that when many of our universities lacked even basic teaching and
research facilities and were financially dependent on the government for even their day-to-day
running, it was naive to expect such a sophisticated scheme to succeed, and it did fizzle out. He
says that there are many benefits to the industry viz., Using the academic knowledge base to
improve industrial cost, quality and competitive dimensions, reducing dependence on foreign
know-how and expenditure on internal R&D, updating and upgrading the knowledge base of the
industry's professionals through management development programmes designed by the
academia, the faculty's exposure to industry leading to improved curricula and widened and
deepened teaching perspectives resulting in professional graduates of a high calibre to man
industry.

According to Ashok Kumar4, The drawbacks as detailed in the following are continued in India,
then the future of management education is bleak. Among various reasons, the chief ones are:
1. Inertia on the part of the state
2. Insensitivity of Business/Industry sector
3. Shortage of expert faculty
4. Paucity of reading/ reference material and case studies in Indian context
5. Lack of initiative on the part of various associations/ Chambers of industry
6. Public ignorance and apathy
7. The increasing or mushrooming of profit oriented management schools
8. The inability to think as per the requirements of the day.
9. The lack of proper infrastructure in the institutes
10. The studies oriented towards examinations.
One of the major flaws in the system as seen by him has been the lack of industry interaction.

Sandip and Premchand5 studied the interaction with industry, a vital part of management
education, is also very low in the Outlook research on management education: 45 per cent of the
institutes have not conducted any MDP (Management Development Programme) or taken any
consultancy project in 2004-5. University B-schools suffer from the usual bureaucratic
bottlenecks. From curriculum revision to upgradation of facilities, there are a whole lot of
permissions to be taken at every step. So it's all the more creditable for schools like the Faculty
of Management Studies (FMS) at Delhi University, and Jamnalal Bajaj in Mumbai to have
managed to maintain their brand image in the face of the private onslaught. For instance, even to
buy a water cooler, FMS needs to seek UGC permission and then go through the tendering
rigmarole before placing an order. Annual fund allocations are constantly delayed due to red-
tapism and bureaucratic apathy.

P. Wani, T.K. Garg, S.K. Sharma6 in their study have quoted that the development of
entrepreneurship amongst engineers will be an effective mechanism of luminous renaissance in
technology innovations, helpful in the removal of regional imbalance and sustainable growth of
SMEs. An engineer, through self-employment as a career, can bring about a technical revolution
that can meet the challenges of the emerging scenarios of globalisation and liberalisation, with a
key element of competition rather than protection. This can be fostered only through continuous
industry interactions.

METHODOLOGY

There was an in-depth unstructured interviews conducted among the management faculty in
major institutions and universities in India through internet and an email was sent to find out
their responses towards the industry interactions. Similarly an email was sent to about 50 senior
executives in industry who have completed full time MBA programmes. This had a mixed
response with only few of them responding. In turn, there was a panel discussion at the Institute
of Management in Kerala at Adoor centre among the industry participants and academics. The
results of the same are indicated below for the successful fostering of industry- university
interface with respect to management education.

FINDINGS

1. Currently the interaction with the industry is restricted to industry personnel handling
special classes at management institutions.

2. The academics are not keen on taking up consultancy projects from the industry even
though there are more possibilities on this account.

3. The much hyped management development programmes or training programmes are

limited to only few institutions which are primarily from the private sector and the
universities are not involved in the same.

4. The representations of industry personnel in the Board of studies in Commerce and

management education is not there. Only management boards have one or two industry
personnel where as in Commerce boards it is literally absent.

5. The management students are involved only in often beaten topics in research which is
not useful for the industry and it is sometimes difficult to accommodate students for
projects.

6. There are no live projects that are taken up by the students.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Considering the above, it is important that the universities involve in the following to foster a
conducive climate with the industry for mutual benefits:

1. Providing for adequate number of industry personnel in the Board of studies in

Management and Commerce, Faculty of management and commerce and also in the
possible governing bodies.

2. Revising the curriculum as per the requirements of the industry and for the same there is
a need for continuous interaction with leaders in the industry.

3. Institutional memberships in Industry bodies, sending representatives to participate in

industry meets and also students to involve in organizing the meets.
 4. Close interaction with the industry by setting up Chair centres, Chair professorships as
was done recently in Kerala university where State Bank of Travancore established a
chair professor in Banking by transferring Rs.55 Lakh.

5. More interaction and involvement with CII, FICCI and Chambers of Commerce.

6. Associating with specialized institutions for short term and long term career oriented
courses.

7. Conducting the industry relevant MDP’s and training programmes

8. Sending the faculty on a short term industry orientation as against the orientation
mandated by UGC.

9. Other suggestion was making this orientation and refresher courses primarily industry run
than academia.

REFERENCES:

1. Dharani P Sinha (2004), “Management education- tinkering will not help”, The Hindu
businessline, Feb 20,2004.
2. http://www.iimb.ernet.in/iimb/html/m-frames.jsp?ilink=141&pname=corporate-
student_organisations.htm.
3. PK Guruswamy(2005), “ the gains from industry-academia interaction”, The Hindu
businessline, March 29, 2005.
4. Ashok Kumar (1984), “Towards preparing Indian managers”, Times Research
Foundation, Pune, 1984.
5. Sandipan Deb ,Premchand Palety (2001) “Bees Knees”, Outlook, September
12,2001,pp.42-56.
6. P. Wani, T.K. Garg, S.K. Sharma (2004), “Effective industry/institute interaction for
developing entrepreneurial vision amongst engineers for the sustainable development of
SMEs in India”, International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation
(IJTTC), Vol. 3, No. 1, 2004.