HRD minister warns b-schools against deciding average salary before the start of the placement season

Taking serious exception to the practice of b-schools deciding their average batch salary for the graduating batch even before the first company visits campus for recruitment, union HRD minister Mr.Kapil Sibal issued a statement strongly condemning such behavior. The statement goes thus: “In the last few years we have come across a lot of cases where the b-schools have a figure in mind, even before the placement season begins, that would eventually be printed on its placement report. We have received several complaints from the student community against several Indian management institutes indulging in this practice. In fact, in one of the recent cases, a b-school released its placement report for the batch of 2012 last month when the students of this batch are yet to enter their 2nd year. Though the school administration attributed this lapse to a clerical error wherein the concerned person entered ‘2012’ in the placement report instead of ‘2011’, we are aware that it is not the case as the school has already released the report for its 2011 batch a few months back and this recent report is not the same as the earlier one. Also we have been told that soon after this incident, the head of the institute PR team and a student placement representative were suspended to punish them for their carelessness which led to this leak. This is ludicrous. The ministry strongly condemns such irresponsible behavior. B-schools which claim to produce future corporate honchos aren’t expected to do this.” There is criticism from some corporates too. Shruthi who is a talent acquisition manager with Pain & Co – one of the big 4 consulting firms said: “Recently I had been to one of the b-schools in Mumbai to meet my sister who works in the administrative department of the institute. But I was shocked to see their placement report later where it was mentioned that Pain & Co visited the campus. Yes I visited. But I only visited. It was totally a personal visit.”

However when we spoke to the directors of some of the premier b-schools, many of them defended this practice of pre-deciding placement figures. One of the directors, who obviously did not want to be named, in a desperate attempt to defend this practice, said: “The union minister has rightly said that we are churning out corporate honchos. This practice involves goal-setting, clairvoyance and foresight. These are essential qualities of a CEO. The CEO sets the mission for the organization. He sets revenue targets. For instance, he plans to double the sales revenue in 5 years. This is exactly what we do with placement salary figures. So, essentially we are preparing CEOs.”

The director of Management Institute of India(MII) – Aajcatta, in a scathing criticism of the HRD minister, said: “The minister need not preach us what is appropriate. Let him first look at bigger issues of governance like corruption. Let him leave MIIs to educationists. We don’t want interference in our affairs and functioning. We are no longer dependent on the government. We demand complete autonomy. The directors of all the MIIs have planned to launch a fast unto death to press our demand for autonomy, as fasts are the order of the day. Civil society activists have agreed to support our cause and join us in our protest. However congress leader Digvijay Singh came down heavily on the directors of MIIs saying: “The directors should be sacked. This fast is politically motivated. We know that RSS and other communal elements are behind this demand for autonomy”

We finally decided to contact Mr.Narindham Chaudhari of Indian Institute of Publicity Management (IIPM), to end this news item with some entertainment for the readers. He said:”This is why you shouldn’t join MIIs. They have to operate under so many constraints which hamper their functioning. Dare to think beyond the MIIs. Join IIPM. We don’t have any recognition – no UGC, no HRD ministry. So we are not answerable to anyone. We even have our placement report for 2015 ready. We have already been ranked No.1 in international exposure in the year 2025. Nobody can question us.“
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