The present recruitment trends in some renowned MBA institutes in the State continue to give credence to the belief that these institutions are immune to the general plunging levels of demand for the management course.
At the T A Pai Management Institute, Manipal, all the 391 final-year students have been placed, much before their graduation. The college saw as many as 107 companies during the recruitment process, with the average take- home package being Rs 8.70 lakh per annum, as compared to last year’s Rs 8.41 lakh.
Nearly 41 per cent of the students were hired by 30 companies from the IT sector, another 15 per cent each were placed in nine consultancy companies and 18 banking and finance companies and finally, nine companies under the manufacturing sector hired nine per cent of the students.
The case is similar at the M S Ramiah Institute of Management, Bengaluru, where nearly 65 per cent of the students have already been placed. Somashekhar M N, placement officer at the institute, said the entire batch of 210 students would be placed before the end of next month.
“Last year by this time, around 50 per cent of the students were placed. Also, the average annual salary package has increased from around Rs 4.5 lakh per annum to Rs 4.8 to 4.9 lakh,” he said. “There is definitely a better response this year from companies, in terms of their numbers and the packages offered,” he added.
These trends in a way, highlight the findings of a recent poll carried out by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), in which 169 companies from 30 countries participated. The GMAC conducts the Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT) for entry into management courses worldwide.
The poll highlighted positive trends in the recruitment compared with last year’s. For example, the poll results indicated that 72 per cent of the surveyed employers are expected to hire MBA graduates this year, as opposed to the 69 per cent in 2014. Even the base salaries for these MBA graduates are expected to rise this year, the survey further predicted.
A highly placed member of the consortium that conducted the PGCET (postgraduate common entrance test) for MBA courses in the State last year, told Deccan Herald that these institutes are able to maintain a high demand for their courses due to their liaison with the industry and their ability to attract the creamy layer of students. On the contrary, a number of new institutes that offer MBA courses have come up, but lack proper foundations, he added. “The saying, there is no recession for good quality, goes for these institutes,” he said.