How can a person be creative when he has to pay his Edu Loan?

The past few years have witnessed a combination of factors that have made it difficult for MBA passouts from some of the most sought after Universities to make any impact in their jobs in some of the best organizations (in terms of present growth trajectories) across world.

Factors, including - overall economic crisis, macro economic volatility affecting businesses with international exposure, exponential improvement in technology leading to irreversible job-losses, education-inflation, higher cost for higher-ed across the world, inflated interest rates from banks, etc - all leading to a crisis that has the foundations of taking human potential and shoving it into a blast furnace and burn for ages.

We are already seeing trends across the US on student loan defaults. Are we not privy to the reasons behind such situations and what it means for companies who are to have excellent future talent bases who have strong cognitive and creative capacities to succeed?

I know for a fact that if there is a huge financial burden on someone, they will take most of the choices based on a safe financial passage for the initial phase of their lives. Which means that the most important part of their lives when they could have done quality work and could have contributed with their creativity and cognitive prowess, are now being wasted taking up jobs that are supposed to pay for their loans; and NO, the ideal combination of getting a job that one loves and also pays the loan are not out there for everyone. Such things are getting rarer by the day.

We need such youngsters to come and take up responsibilities of quality work and large businesses from Day 1 and we need them to be creative enough to solve larger problems. At most times, we are ending up people who will conform to almost anything since that will save their jobs. That will help them to not lose the race (the rat race), a tunnel that end into Suicides.

Are we, as organizations putting things in the right perspectives for people to falsely understand that a professional degree like MBA is the only answer to things that are considered best and successful in lives of common people? Who are responsible to inflate fees of Universities in ways that has absolutely no correlation in the way salaries are growing for such people passing out of these institutions?

It's scary and not at all a sustainable model. We have pushed the envelope so far to get to the solution of manpower woes that we cannot even take things back. Imagine Universities cutting down on their fees - not going to happen anytime in the future. Such strategies set on wrong premises defined by a very old traditional thinking has been ticking like a time bomb. Its devouring good minds into submission and taking its full toll on people whose dreams and aspirations have become defined by a closed set of achievements - which is becoming distant every passing day.

Saving Indian B-schools from extinction

I have written in the past about how b-schools in India are on the verge of closing down (about 2 years back), and then I had predicted that there is a probability of a second wave of growth in the domain to allow some of the borderline players to actually top-grade and survive.

In the past 1 year, a lot of things have changed (for bad) primarily based on certain decisions made by regulatory bodies in the MBA domain that were backed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (that oversees and kind of controls regulatory bodies like AICTE, UGC, etc).

To begin with, the AICTE introduced a common test (the CMAT) to replace most of the state run entrance test (like the Maharashtra CET, GCET, amongst others). The idea seemed to be providing a common platform and standardized testing for students who would now be seeking admissions into bschools that were under the purview of AICTE (which is almost everyone actually). The perceived objective (as mentioned by AICTE during their concerns over standard of education in MBA colleges, while representing themselves in front of the Supreme Court of India), was to provide some semblance in the selection process to allow colleges under AICTE to get access to good quality students. Therefore other tests (like the MAT) were taken out from 2012.

I have my own reservations on how CMAT will really solve the problem and I have written against the same before. I still stand by my observations that this test will produce no measurable results and good quality improvements across AICTE regulated bschools.

I am worried on the flip-side of the whole exercise - that which takes into account the number of bschools across many states (those that were til date getting students through State_CET and common counseling process) who are going to find themselves with empty classrooms even in this year (this has already happened last year).

The real problem is the perceived lack of quality in these bschools along with structural issues that do not allow such bschools to be a part of the mainstream action. This kind of mainstream action is enjoyed by the top100 bschools in any rankings and these bodies are now expanding their reach even outside India with their international campuses.

Out of the 2000 odd bschools in India, probably not more than 15% are above the perceptual barrier of applicants looking at MBA (that number amounts to about 70% of all MBA applicants in India who are looking at applying to only 15% of the bschools)

The solution is not another test, and it never was.

To my mind, the process should have some reflection of the points suggested below:
- Make a list and then a category of bschools under AICTE that have everything else (infra mostly, and are not insolvent) other than the students

- Once the bschools are categorized, include them into a 7-year plan of improving these bschools into seats of excellence

- Introduce a bill or special conditions in the existing bills of higher education investments/funding,
wherein International Universities and b-schools can only tie-up with the shortlisted bschools (from the above point) in India

- Make this compulsory and provide excellent sops to these international Universities who will associate with these existing bschools. The Univs get to access the infra and land through these existing bschools, and in return they make the Indian institute their partner in this venture. All faculty, books, collaborations, etc can be renewed under the new umbrella brand and therefore a leash of life will be given to the Indian bschool

- Allow 7 years for the new JV to flourish with Govt funding, relaxed norms, and other advantages that will allow the International University to make this concern grow and be one of most sought after destinations in India

- Regulate the admission process, but allow autonomy in terms of the curriculum etc so that such things can become the USP of most of these revamped colleges

- Go for a Round 2 with the next category of bschools in India

I am looking at saving about 1000 more bschools in India that will DIE if the right set of measures are not taken. Students just don't choose these bschools due to reasons other than ease of application. A Student would want to associate with a good brand and the Min of HRD will do good work if they allow these bschools to flourish as brands rather than solve the gateway problems.

Some critics might say that we cannot depend on foreign Universities solving our problems. To them I want to say that our problem at most times is the lack of vision and unavailability or no-access to quality courseware and talent. In a country where the high watermark of MBA education in an IIM, then we ought to do something improves the quality of talent available for our future managers.
I hope something like this can be done as soon as possible and then AICTE allows the autonomy to these institutions to become excellent examples/models for other to follow.

Else we might witness more bschools closing down in the coming years.