MBA Curriculum Overhaul Needed To Ensure Employability, Say Academicians

MBA today is the second most employable course in India. Even then it has been found that less than half of the total MBA graduates have the necessary skills to be effectively employable. Their first few years in the job are spent gaining the required insight into the practical and real world of business and acquiring a basic understanding of it. 

The academicians believe that better facilities, pedagogical training, and rethinking the curriculum could improve the situation. Many academicians have suggested an MBA curriculum overhaul so as to revamp the whole one or two years of a students' life during the course.

MBA Curriculum Overhaul- A Necessity in Current Times

With four of India’s top B-Schools in the FT rankings MBA 2022, it indicates that it is the tier-II and tier-III B-Schools in India that are maybe facing issues. The academicians from some of the tier-II colleges reported that they find the curriculum outdated, with very little emphasis on training and development of the faculty. The teaching methods are also traditional and need to catch up with the current times.

Along with pointing out such issues, the academicians also suggested that the MBA curriculum only catered for general management and can be specialized. Specialized skills, required in the current business world, can be taught from the beginning of the course. The undergraduate courses’ duration can be extended to give options to students to take up an extra year and pursue an MBA along with their course to get a dual degree. This will endow the students with skills as well as the knowledge to apply them. 

Involvement of technology as a part of the MBA curriculum

More and more institutes are realizing the need to include technological trends as a part of the MBA curriculum. STEM-related skills have gained popularity, and thus, so many science and engineering colleges are opening up MBA branches for students. These B-Schools will play a key role in helping the non-engineering students settle in with technology and use it wisely with their managerial skills.

Institutes can re-work the MBA curriculum to include courses on digital transformation, remote team management, business continuity, and building resilience.  Along with technology as a key component, soft skills are also to be stressed in the MBA curriculum. Social skills, emotional intelligence, and the ability to think critically will play an important role.

Inadequacy of faculty

The MBA curriculum overhaul will also require training and development of the faculty in the B-Schools. More teachers with hands-on experience will be required, with skill sets that need to be taught. The diversification of faculty with knowledge about liberal arts, communication, and other disciplines will make the MBA curriculum more comprehensive. Online degrees, accreditation systems, and collaborations between universities across the world can help tackle such a transition in terms of pedagogy.

The hope for MBA in India looks bright with more and more students showing interest to enter the business world, but it's imperative to make the degree live up to the expectations of those employing these students. Only then can these students move ahead with the necessary skillset and knowledge to tackle real-life problems.

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