Management schools record 23% dip in placements amid Covid: AICTE data

According to the data, B-Schools in other states also saw placements plunging: Maharashtra (20%), Karnataka (15%), Tamil Nadu (28%), Madhya Pradesh (22%) and Uttar Pradesh (28%) all saw a dip.

India’s management schools saw a 23% drop in placements in the academic year 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20, according to data compiled by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the country’s professional education regulator. The sharp decline -- the placement figures plummeted to a nine-year low in 2020 -- is being attributed to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on education and the economy.

The data shows that placements dropped even in states known for their strong service sectors such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, and Maharashtra, amid the pandemic. (HT file photo)

Official statistics reviewed by Hindustan Times revealed that only 92,322 students in management courses graduated with jobs in hand from AICTE-approved management colleges in 2020-21 as compared to 119,546 students the previous year. The numbers relate to students enrolled in AICTE-approved management colleges and institutes in undergraduate, postgraduate and diploma courses in management. Enrollment remained the same during both the academic years, the data showed.

AICTE chairperson Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe attributed the decline to classes, even internships, shifting out of physical locations to the online mode due to the pandemic.

“The pandemic forced all education institutions, including those offering professional courses, to switch to online education for the entire academic year 2020-21. Many companies, as a part of their recruitment policies, observe the candidate during internships and then hire them. This could not happen in the last academic year since even internships were held online,” Sahasrabudhe said.

“Besides, the entire placement process was conducted in an online mode unlike the 2019-20 session when the major part of the process was already completed before the pandemic hit. It looks like many companies were not keen on hiring a lot of people based on their performance in virtual internships and interviews.”

Officials at several management institutes attributed the drop in placements to the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in uncertainties including inadequate training during the online internships, virtual recruitment process and adverse market conditions.

The data shows that placements dropped even in states known for their strong service sectors such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, and Maharashtra, amid the pandemic.

In Andhra Pradesh’s 330 institutes, the placements dropped by 35% to 6,982 while in national capital Delhi, only 2,569 students in 40 institutes in the city received a job offer in 2020-21, a 37% decline over 2019-20’s 4,053 students.

According to the data, B-Schools in other states also saw placements plunging: Maharashtra (20%), Karnataka (15%), Tamil Nadu (26%), Madhya Pradesh (22%) and Uttar Pradesh (28%) all saw a dip.

A second AICTE official who has analysed the data from the country’s 3,100 management institutes, most of them are in the private sector, said the biggest impact was reported in new or less sought-after colleges (also known as tier-2 or tier-3 colleges).

These figures exclude the premier Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) since they are autonomous and do not fall under the purview of AICTE.

C Poovendran, placement officer at Coimbatore Institute of Management and Technology in Tamilnadu, said they were among those institutes where placements took a hit. “The pandemic had completely changed the way we used to conduct placement drives and badly affected the job market. Despite our best possible efforts, we could not get as many recruiters as we do in normal times. The job opportunities were really low in some sectors including human resources, marketing and hospitality. Things are slowly picking up now and we expect to conduct offline placement drives this year,” he said.

“We had to put extra efforts to recruiters to get this 2020-21 batch placed,” said an official at a new management institute in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district.

“Even if there were recruiters, the number of people they wanted to hire was very low because of the changes in recruitment policies of companies amid the pandemic. Institutes like us who are still in the process of building their brands were worst affected by the pandemic in terms of placements,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

But there were several other institutes such as FORE School of Management, Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship and Delhi Technical University (DTU) in Delhi, and Jaipuria Institute of Management in Ghaziabad, who insisted that the number of placements did not drop. But they acknowledged difficulties in getting recruiters in several sectors.

“The sectors which were hiring well earlier namely hospitality, manufacturing and real estate have considerably decreased the intake as these industries have been severely impacted by the pandemic. Whereas, Ed tech, insurance and healthcare saw a proliferation in the business due to online classes, the uncertainty of life and need of healthcare services respectively,” said Ashwani Varshney, Dean (student welfare), Jaipuria Institute in Ghaziabad.