New Delhi: The business of running business schools isn’t easy. Around 130 management institutes or 4% of all B-schools in India are expected to close shop this year, twice as many as last year, thanks to faculty shortage, lack of students, substandard curriculum and poor infrastructure.
Topping the list of states whose business schools have applied to wind up is Andhra Pradesh with 36 such institutes, followed by Rajasthan with 25 and Uttar Pradesh with 18. Total seat capacity of all these institutes is almost 10,000. Recently, the Mumbai Business School wound up after three years of operation due to lack of students. It provided a one-year full-time programme in management, similar to the one offered by the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business.
“Closure of management institutes is more common than engineering institutes because of relatively lower investments and the present soft market for management education. All these institutes will continue to operate for their existing batches but fresh admissions have been stopped,” said a senior official from the human resource development ministry.
Last year, 40 B-schools requested closure according to the All-India India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which prescribes norms for faculty and approval for establishment of new institutes.
Experts said many B-schools were unable to fill all seats while some were unable to meet the criteria of AICTE and therefore had to shut shop. “Most of these institutes are in rural areas, without any relation with the industry and have poor admissions. There are no jobs in such remote areas and hence, they lose out on students,” said AICTE chairman SS Mantha.
India has nearly 4,000 B-schools with a capacity of 3.5 lakh seats. Every year, around 60-70 institutes get added to the list. The council is still processing the applications of institutes and closure can happen once the respective state government and affiliating university gives its no-objection certificate.