The admission process to Masters in
Business Administration (MBA) and Post Graduate Diploma in Management
(PGDM) programs, in India, is cumbersome and expensive, believe
management aspirants, according to India’s first-ever study of
B-School aspirants.
Conducted by MBAUniverse.com, in
November 2013, the online survey covered 445 respondents who appeared
for Common Admission Test (CAT) 2013 for the Indian Institutes of
Management (IIMs).
61% respondents said that there are
too many MBA entrance exams and 77% wanted a regulatory body to
oversee management education. The MBA aspirants sought reduction in
tuition fee, better public disclosure on placement track record and
normalization process in the CAT qualifying scores. One-third test
takers also said that the application fee to B schools should be less
than Rs. 500.
Respondents suggested that the 140
B-schools who accept CAT results for admission, should let the
applicant apply to a B-school after getting their CAT scores in
January unlike the current way where many B-schools like MDI and SP
Jain close their application process in December itself much before
CAT results are announced, incurring unnecessary expense.
MBAUniverse.com’s first survey of MBA
aspirants brings out key insights which will help business schools
and policy makers address concerns and initiate reforms. Else, we
will see more B Schools closing down,” says Amit Agnihotri, chairman
of MBAUniverse.com.
While MBA aspirants are not happy with
many of the elements of the current admission process, they welcomed
innovative changes like replacement of group discussion with Written
Ability Test (WAT). 67 % of respondents said that they prefer WAT
over GD.
An overwhelming majority of 78%
respondents wanted to pursue an MBA for knowledge enhancement while
more than 65 per cent wanted it for a better salary. Among the
parameters on which respondents selected B-schools Placement history
was at the top followed by corporate linkages, position of B-Schools
in various rankings and Government approvals and faculty.
Specializations offered, fee structure and location were not very
important for the respondents.
Chart #1. What are your objectives for doing an MBA?
Of the 445 respondents seeking
admission to 2014 program 94 per cent said CAT was their first choice
within more than 10 MBA exams held every year for MBA admissions.
For 66.7 per cent of the respondents XAT was the second most
preferred examination. NMAT and SNAP exam were close third and fourth
(for 45.8 per cent and 44.4 per cent) while IIFT exam, the fifth
most preferred exam, was the first preference for 34.7 per cent of the
candidates. CMAT exam floated by AICTE as the only gateway for MBA
entrance in 2011, along with AIMA MAT, were the least preferred tests
with a score of 30.6 per cent and 16.7 per cent.
Almost half the MBA aspirants relied
on websites of individual B-Schools as the most credible and
trustworthy source of information followed by online MBA portals,
like MBAUniverse.com, as the second most preferred source for 29.3
per cent of aspirants.
Chart # 2: Which is the most credible source of Information on MBA?
For 27 per cent aspirants, Delhi is
the preferred destination for MBA education followed by Bengaluru
(25.4 per cent), Mumbai (18.3 per cent) and Ahmedabad (11.3 per
cent).
Chart # 3: Which are your most preferred cities for MBA? Rank your choices as Top 3
The survey also covered many other
interesting facets of MBA admission process. Stay tuned to
MBAUniverse.com for more highlights.
No comments:
Post a Comment