IIMs: Quality is the issue, not placements!

IN the middle of March we  received an email from an anonymous student from IIM Lucknow. Within 24 hours we got an email from the same id which blandly informed us that the previous email was not authentic. When we enquired informally, the contents of the email did have some resonance with the students. So we reached out to the Dean–Placements with specific queries. We received a response which just said that the placement season is not yet over.

Other IIMs fare no better
In the last few days, the scenario has repeated in most other IIMs, barring probably IIM-A, and IIM-C. Rest of them have willy-nilly conceded that there is a slowdown in the economy and hence the sluggish placements. Some like IIM-Calcutta, have blamed the increase in intake (it raised its intake from 350 to 462) as a reason. Some other observers comment that the location of the some of the new IIMs are not exactly conducive to corporations for placements. Reduction in the perceived  value of an IIM PGDM is another reasons cited. But none of these arguments  seems to even address the core concern in the student's email, which is the decreasing quality of placements that are offered to students at the IIMs.

The case of IIM Ahmedabad
The institute which raised fees from Rs. 2 lakh per annum to 11.5 lakh per annum in 2008 is showing a very slow decline in average and minimum salaries as the table on the opposite page shows. Now if a student pays about Rs. 16 lakhs and gets a salary of 6 lakhs, the EMI (35 K+) alone would eat away 2/3rds of his or her salary. Now none of the institutions including the venerable IIM Ahmedabad, tells us how many in their batch fall in the lowest quartile of placements. We are still waiting for IIM Lucknow’s placement report 2013. Even if the institute manages to place most of the students, the core issue that the email raised, which is the quality of final placements (with salaries ranging from 4- 6 lakhs per annum) will not be addressed at all. And since they are good brands, the median and mean salaries would continue to be higher, thus enabling these institutions to present an "all is well" picture.

What is the way out?
IIMs, for all their tall claims to autonomy are set up and nurtured out of tax payers' money. They are national institutions and do have a moral mandate to be the torch-bearers in the management domain. The Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS) by IIM-A is a good start. But until all IIMs are open about the value which the last student at IIM derives, emails such as above would continue to bombard our collective conscience. But will it move the IIM Directors at all?  

A student's open letter to editor of the magazine   

 A letter claimed by authorities