New Delhi: After a dip during the pandemic, the number of placements in management courses surged to a five-year high in 2021-2022, according to latest data from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
The upward trend is expected to continue in 2023, going by incoming data from institutions that have released their placement reports so far.
The data shows that the number of placements in AICTE-affiliated management institutions was 1,06,541 in 2017-2018, rose to 1,15,850 in 2018-2019, and then further to 1,19,877 in 2019-2020. In the Covid pandemic period of 2020-2021, the placements dipped to 1,09,099, but picked up in the following year.
In 2021-2022, the numbers touched a five-year high, with 1,20,946 students getting placed in the management sector. The data takes into account both PG Diploma in Management (PGDM) and Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) courses.
The percentage of students getting placements out of the total number graduating has also improved over the years.
In 2017-18, the placement percentage was 59 per cent, which went up to 61.8 per cent in 2018-19, and then 83 per cent in 2021-22.
Experts have linked this surge to companies changing their hiring practices, especially post-Covid, and anticipate that the trend will also reflect in the overall placement numbers of the academic year 2022-23.
Bhishm Chugani, director of career services at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), said: “During Covid, many businesses, big and small, were forced to hasten a change in the way they conducted their work. For these business projects globally, there was a surge in hiring of MBAs over the last two-three years.”
“While overall placement numbers for many business schools have seen a rise this year as well, some schools are also seeing a slight dip in placements,” he added.
Rajeev Sharma, faculty member, Operations and Decision Science, and chairperson of the Centre for Corporate Relations, at Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), said there has been a constant increase in average yearly salary packages awarded during placements post-Covid.
Talking about BIMTECH’s placements, he said that in the 2019-21 PGDM batch, an average increase of 16 per cent in salary packages was recorded over the 2018-20 batch. Similarly, the 2020-22 batch witnessed an 18 per cent increase in the average salary from the previous batch, while the 2021-2023 batch saw a 20 per cent hike.
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Banking, consulting, IT sectors have maximum intake
In terms of sector-wise placement, the consulting sector has shown good growth in intake during the last two cycles of hiring, contributing around 20-25 per cent during the current cycle as against 7-10 per cent during the pre-Covid phase, according to Sharma.
He added that the majority of placements — 60 to 70 per cent — have been in banking and finance, IT, and consulting sectors in the last two years.
Amit Bhadra, dean of management at GITAM School of Business, said placements were good in 2022, but even better in 2023.
Commenting on the overall placement scenario in management education, he said: “Since more businesses are enrolling employees in business schools, something new is beginning to emerge. As times change, recruiters are stressing the value of expertise obtained from business institutions.”
Bhadra said that this year’s placements have been “much better” this year, although there might be variations between institutes.
“In our institute, last year’s average salaries were close to Rs 6 lakh a year, while this year the average salaries are Rs 7.2 lakh. In Hyderabad, it is a little more than Rs 8 lakh. This number might change once all the students are placed, since some get placed towards the end. This is the trend so far,” he said.
Bhadra claimed that the institute is “pretty confident of having 100 per cent placements this year”.
“Everyone who wants a job will get a job this year. Among the companies that have come to our campus, at least 30 per cent have not come before. The diversity has been excellent,” he said.
This is also reflected in the data that some management institutes have shared in their placement reports so far.
SPJIMR, in a report released last month, said median salaries for the PGDM batch of 2023 had gone up by 9.3 per cent.
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode, in a press release Friday, said placements were better than last year and that 100 per cent placements had been recorded.
“The average for the top 5 percentile of the offers is Rs 62.04 lakh per annum, an increase of 8 per cent over last year and the average for the top 10 percentile stands at Rs 55.2 lakh per annum, an increase of more than 4 per cent over last year,” the release stated.
The article has been updated to correct the designation of Prof Amit Bhadra.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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