“Ignorant students often rate teachers based on personality and not on performance,” says a professor who teaches Organisational Behaviour in a reputed business school in Jayanagar, Bengaluru. Matters have become complicated due to the fact that senior teachers are refusing to retire as they feel teaching is a good way of whiling away the time.
A former colleague of mine suffered a heart attack and was advised bypass surgery. Even though he is affluent and his children are settled abroad, he was back in the college after a four-week hiatus. There are also lecturers who are retired from the army or navy and enjoy a handsome pension. In addition to the pension, they take a tidy sum as salary.
I have always felt that the old has to give way to the new. This is one of the reasons I retired from an active teaching career when it was time to hang up my boots. Retirement is a phase in life that needs to be enjoyed and I am a firm believer in this principle. So long as senior citizens continue to work, how can the young get an opportunity? When will educational institutions realise this? There must be a retirement age for those working as lecturers in educational institutions. This is really a paradox: Those who really need a job are deprived and those who do it for a lark are bestowed with all the perks associated with a lecturer’s job in a business school.
Being a woman, I am a strong votary of women’s financial independence. When I was working, there was a need to support my husband Venkatagiri, who was a bank employee. There were financial goals that had to be met. However, today many of the women who work in business schools do so not because they are passionate about teaching but because of the income it fetches and the opportunity to while away their time. This is sad.
One of the reasons business schools have lost their reputation is because of the idle chat and gossip mongering among women lecturers who spend all the time in between classes for things that may not be so productive.
Let me come to the quality of students in business schools, which is deteriorating day by day. In cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Chennai seats for Master in Business Administration (MBA) are literally sold. There is not much in terms of an eligibility requirement, except that you need a pass percentage of 50% in degree exams. Bengaluru business schools have a deluge of applications from students based in Kerala.
Kerala is a state where the flow of money from Dubai or Middle East countries is abundant. So, these boys and girls who traipse to cities like Chennai and Bengaluru are already assured of a job in the Middle East even before they enter the precincts of a business school. Barring a few, most students do not have any communication skills. As their medium of instruction is Malayalam, they struggle to cope with the demands of the MBA course, which is in English.
However, their affluence leads to attitude and arrogance. Hence, when a faculty member rebukes them for gross indiscipline it is not uncommon to find that the students vent their anger with abusive language in their feedback forms about the faculty. Staying away from their parents (some of whom are based in Dubai), such students fall prey to drugs and alcohol abuse and there are reported instances of pre-marital sex among girls and their getting pregnant. Some of them abort the child and the course and marry a boy of their parents’ choice.
My friends in Bengaluru often feed me with stories about girl students spending the night in their boyfriends’ pads without worrying about the future. Most students shun the hostel facilities and move to paying guest accommodation to enjoy unhindered freedom away from the prying eyes of their parents.
So the question arises – what about local students? In cities like Pune and Bengaluru migrant students are attracted to job prospects while the local students who have scored well in their graduation join the corporate world to get some experience. So the locals who join the MBA program are those who have scored 60% or 65% in their degree. Many girls join MBA to escape marriage for at least two years and to have fun, sponsored by their parents.
I have taught many affluent students who end up securing a job in a bank or a financial research firm only to quit six months later to join their father’s business. Such students do great disservice to the efforts of placement officers.
Most business schools are facing rough weather because of a complete absence of strategic thinking. As they keep enrolling poor quality students year after year, their brand reputation goes for a toss. Rather than business schools selecting students, it is all about agents of business schools marketing MBA education and attracting students and earning Rs50,000 and above as commission, per student. Collection targets are set every year and this student enrolment determines whether the faculty members can expect increments or not or whether their jobs are safe.
But the honeymoon has to get over at some point. As poor quality students get churned out year after year and companies who come for placement realise that they are saddled with a set of employees who can never add value, it is the beginning of the end. When a student with an MBA degree joins a haircutting salon or a pizza delivery hut, the writing is clear on the wall. If companies complain about poor employability of MBA students, they are justified in doing so.
Students who are lazy and unwilling to learn can never be great professionals or work as managers. This is the truth. Sloth in the classroom cannot become silver in the boardroom.
This is the reason why the business model of business schools has become untenable and sustainability becomes doubtful. In addition to poor quality students, if the institution has faculty members who lack passion and verve, it can be a difficult situation. Performance appraisal mechanisms in business schools need a major overhaul. Students’ feedback can only be a component of the feedback process. The teacher’s efforts in terms of contribution to research or non-teaching activities need attention. But how many institutions can boast of a robust performance appraisal process sans subjectivity?
This is the reason disillusionment sets in fast for those teachers who start on a promising note. Within a matter of three years even the most dedicated teacher can succumb to a culture where despondency and apathy rules. Most promoters do not care much about their teaching fraternity as their focus continues to be on the cash box. The same institutions conduct conferences on “Human Capital Management” but treat their own employees in the most despicable manner as an asset that can disposed of easily and replaced.
The future for business schools appears to be bleak unless corrective actions are taken.
(To be concluded)
(This is the second part of a three part series)
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