According to students, there are not one but many reasons behind why they, actually, shy away from CAT. Every student whom we spoke to had a different reason to avoid CAT. One student felt that CAT is too tough a nut to crack, while others said it requires a lot of time, patience and energy.
But, what do industry experts have to say about it? Are their presumptions (read thats a interpretations) different from those quoted by students’?
According to Sankarshan Basu, Professor at the Finance and Control Department, IIM – Bangalore, it’s the existence of other MBA exams that led to the decline in the CAT registrations this year. He says, “CAT registrations have gone down marginally. It’s basically insignificant. According to me, one of the reasons that led to the decline in numbers are exams like MAT which are conducted for admissions to AICTE accredited schools. ATMA too is one of them. These exams have become popular amongst students and thus any such student who believes that their realistic chances of cracking CAT are low, have eventually moved towards these exams. However, if you look at the overall number, there is drop of 5000 which amounts to 2%, which I think is insignificant”.
Another industry expert, Vijay Jha, Senior Vice-President, CL Educate Ltd states, “First of all, CAT, per say, shouldn’t be compared with exams like MAT as the target group for both the exams will be completely different. Both the exams cater to two different set of groups. Do you think anyone from IITs or from the top 15-20 engineering colleges would even think of taking MAT and not CAT? For instance, the top-most institute in MAT’s list would be the Alliance Business School, Bangalore, which would certainly not be in the Top 50 institutes in India when it comes to MBA. Moreover, as far as interest in concerned, if there are 30 IITs, 16 IITs and 1 ISM – Dhanbad, no one from these institutes would even think of appearing for MAT.
Commenting on CAT registrations this year, he added, “ The total number of students taking the exam last year was approx 1.91 lakh and this year the number has come down to 1.73 lakh. Here, I am not talking about number of people who have registered for CAT, but who appeared for the exam and these are two different things. The number, whatsoever, has completely gone down. But, the question here is that has it become any easier to get into the top IIMs? The answer is certainly a NO. For instance, this year too, IIM-Ahmedabad has issued calls to approx 1308 students and this is how it has been. So, whether you select these 1308 students from a crowd of 1.91 lakh students or from a crowd of 1.73 lakh students, it’s one and the same thing”.
Is MBA, per say, losing its value?
Do you think the sudden decline in CAT registrations this year is an indication towards
Sharing his views on this concern, Jha says, “There was a time when MBA, per say, was booming. Infact, for some marginal jobs, it didn’t even matter where you had done your MBA from. So, many institutes started to thrive those days. But, that part is definitely over now because the number of lower rank institutes to which students used to apply, have come down. Infact, if you look at AICTE’s website, in the last three years, around 2000 – 2500 managements schools have shut down. Subsequently, anyone who wants to do an MBA from IIM – A will still want to do it from their no matter what. So, ultimately it’s not MBA losing its value but it’s just being corrected. Infact, students have stopped applying to b-grade management school, which was not the case earlier. And if you talk about the craze for the top 30 b-school in India, do you think it has diminished in the last 3-4 years? Would there be anyone who would not want to take admission into any of the top 6 IIMs or XLRIs or any other top 10-20 b-schools? If you ask me about MBA losing its presence, I would say a YES, if students are applying to b-grade schools but my answer would be a NO, if the institute actually adds value to the student”.
Aman Bansal, IT Head at Endeavor careers too shared similar thought. He says,” It’s an evolving phase for MBA as a degree. It will definitely lose its value if it’s pursued from anywhere and not the Top 10 B-schools of the country. The demand for MBA grads in the market is more but if you look at the supply side, there are about more than 3500 b-schools and they still problems in optimizing the value of its MBA degree. Despite charging lakhs of rupees, students from these institutes are getting no value and if the college doesn’t give you the required value then is it worth doing an MBA from that very institute? So, my suggestion to any student will be – Choose your MBA institute wisely. These days, students think, an MBA degree is a placement getting machine. But that is not the case, it never was! Where are you pursuing your management studies, makes a lot of difference.”
Well, besides industry connoisseurs, HR’s of leading companies too had their share of inputs for us. On the condition of anonymity, one of the HR’s from a leading HR consultancy firm commented, “I don’t really think that MBA is losing its value in market. However, where actually are you pursuing it from makes a lot of difference. If you’re doing it from just another b-grade school, then it doesn’t add any value, I believe”.
However, differing from this point, Ashish Bansal, Senior Manager – HR from a leading
Sharing some industry insights and talking about the salary trend that an MBA grad can expect this year, he says, “Salary has gone up more due to the higher cost of living than what an MBA grad would deserve. 2014 looks like a slow year with respect to the hiring activity as compared to the last year. Salaries, has however, remained same or have gone upwards”.
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