The craze of pursuing a professional course like an MBA (Master of Business Administration) after graduation has been a trend for quite some time now.
The recruiters from the corporate world also prefer an MBA rather than a regular master’s degree holder as is evident from the placement statistics and the pay packages. But is it worth it considering the expenses involved? Is MBA a good career option? Many people will say yes if one pursues the same from a top institute. To get an MBA degree from a top institute one has to have a lot of resources besides academic brilliance.
In most of the top business schools outside India, the cost (all inclusive) is more than 1,00,000 USD per year. Even in India, it is not cheap either. The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) charges more than Rs 25 lakhs these days. Therefore, one should analyse all aspects, most importantly the Return on Investment (ROI).
Now, if we do a study of Indian B-schools in comparison to the global B-schools, we may observe that Indian institutions are less expensive. But are they competitive enough or are they at par with others around the world? From a recent survey carried out by CEOWORLD Magazine of New York, several Indian B-schools have been ranked within the top 100 globally in 2020.
IIMs have done exceedingly well. Six IIMs namely Calcutta (ranked 25) Ahmedabad (35), Bangalore (56), Lucknow (62), Kozhikode (73) and Indore (95) are in the top 100. Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi, ranked 28th and XLRI Jamshedpur, ranked 100th, are the other two institutions which are in the top 100.
Perhaps FMS is the most economical institute as it is under the University of Delhi.
However, all things considered, an MBA degree from a top notch B-school of the world is always valuable provided one has the talent and financial resources.
For Indian students, the most preferred countries for doing MBA are the US, Canada, UK and Australia. But one should keep in mind that unlike in India, there is no campus placement abroad even in top B-schools. However, 90-100% of the students are recruited within 2 to 6 months of passing out.
On the contrary, there is good placement record in the top Indian B-schools.
Considering the above, pursuing an MBA in India or abroad is entirely one’s own choice.
(The author is a retired banker from a nationalised bank. The views expressed are his own)
