MBA SEATS NO MORE A RAGE

Any takers for MBA? After that scramble for MBA courses and mushrooming of MBA colleges in the city during the last five years, the storm seems to have died down. Around 30% of colleges offering MBA in the city have surrendered their management seats to the government as they could not find takers for it.

In Karnataka, there are 220 AICTE-approved colleges offering MBA courses. Of these, 64 colleges have surrendered their management seats to the government. This comes to around 1,500 seats and they will be offered to students who have taken the Post-Graduate Common Entrance Test (PGCET) 2010, conducted by Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum, through government quota.

While the number of seats surrendered vary from 10 to 60 among colleges, there are a few colleges that have given up all the seats entitled to them. Some colleges have surrendered their seats a few days ago and these seats will be included in the casual round to be conducted from Monday.

The government quota seats are offered for around Rs 50,000 per annum and the management quota for Rs 3 to Rs 7 lakh. If the seats go vacant, the colleges will have to bear the loss and therefore they usually give it to the government. There are no takers for MCA either as 26 colleges have surrendered their seats.

THE INSIDE STORY

The most cited reason for the inability to fill seats is the increase in number of colleges over the years. There are around 25,000 to 26,000 seats available for the course in Karnataka. However, the number of students who took up the PGCET test this time was only 16,000.

“There were 98 colleges in the state in 2005. Five years from then, we have 220 colleges. The 8,500 seats rose to 25,000-26,000 during this period. Most of the colleges had 60 seats then and a few had 120. Now it has risen to 120 and 180. But there is just 10%-12% increase in the number of aspirants,’’ said Hari Krishna Maram, governing council member, All India Management Association (AIMA).

This list is only that of AICTE-approved institutions. There are 130 institutions who offer the course but not recognised by AICTE.
“Moreover, the students’ expectations have changed. They now look for better facilities, faculties and most importantly placements. In many of these colleges, placements are not good. Though companies come, they might not find suitable students. Many students take loan and take these courses. Without jobs they cannot repay the loan,” said Maram.