Good Morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

I must have been around 15 when a tutor of mine, momentarily sidetracked from the lessons and snacks at hand, made an admission that seemed nothing short of revelatory at the time. He spoke about how college entrance tests, and the degrees they’re a gateway for, end up mostly serving as an “elimination tool” rather than being a true test of an individual’s ability.

Over the years, his words have only rung truer and truer to me. After all, they’re both a neat way for universities and companies to decide whom to let in when hordes of candidates are beating down their doors. 

Next month, around 2–3 lakh candidates will appear for one of the most highly contested of these entrance exams—the Common Admission Test (CAT), the entry point for the few thousand seats available in India’s top B-schools. The highly sought-after Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs)—all 21 of them—have just over 5,500 seats in total for their MBA programmes.

The applicant-vacancy ratio is not as lopsided as, say, civil services, which still continues to be the most-coveted career for lakhs of Indian youth. But MBAs remain one of the most desired certifications in India. After all, the “engineering + MBA (from a good place)” combo has long been touted as one of the best formulas for a successful career in the private sector. 

But this model seems to be showing some cracks in recent years, something we captured in our limited-run 2023–2024 newsletter Day Zero. A range of alternatives are now starting to roll out with the objective of plugging these gaps, and the IIMs themselves have begun tinkering with their traditional programme structures—one of the latest examples of which is the blended MBA programme (not to be confused with executive MBAs) aimed at professionals.

One of the signs that the MBA may not be living up to the hype can be inferred from the sleight of hand employed by some of the newer IIMs in their placement numbers.

My colleague Atul Krishna did a wonderful deep-dive into why some of these institutes don’t follow the same placement norms as legacy IIMs, and what this means for their students.

To show good placement numbers isn’t the only pressure younger IIMs face. Recruiting quality faculty is hard, and happens to be intricately linked to the location of the campus, as we wrote in a 2021 story.

Speaking of placements, how much of a role should students play in placement committees? Especially when there are enough incentives for the management of an institute to take charge completely?

With holes in the ‘Engineering—>MBA—>Fancy job’ dream starting to show, IIMs haven’t been idle. While the government has established several new institutes over these past few years, they’ve also started experimenting with the courses offered. Apart from the blended programme I mentioned earlier, students also have other options right after school, such as the five-year integrated MBA course, and now even a four-year undergraduate degree.

At least four IIMs, including IIM Bangalore, have started offering UG courses, with more waiting in the wings. What’s the reasoning? And why such a high price tag?

XLRI, an IIM-competitor which offers a PGDM (instead of an MBA) and conducts a separate test for itself—XAT—is also exploring new frontiers. Our story from last year explores how the institute is reinventing itself.

Speaking of schools challenging IIMs, we’ve got to talk about Stoa, the pioneer of the alt-MBA movement. While Stoa officially shut down in November 2024, The Ken was the first to signal existential troubles for the institute in June. The story below is a great dive into what led to its downfall, and why not all alt-MBAs may be facing the same predicament.

Even Ashoka University, popular for its holistic liberal-arts approach, has started offering a course on entrepreneurship. Interestingly, the top roles picked by students graduating from Ashoka and the Indian School of Business are quite similar.

We explored the new direction Ashoka is charting—and what that means for its original mission—in this 2024 story:

And long before all this, there was the Institute of Rural Management Anand, founded by the legendary Verghese Kurien. IRMA’s mandate was different from the legacy IIMs, as “it was meant to serve rural producers and cooperatives, giving them managerial sophistication to compete in the market”, according to a former IRMA director. 

And yet, it still delivered top-dollar opportunities for its graduates.

But now, Kurien’s name and the model he pioneered have vanished from the institute, with IRMA being absorbed into the “Tribhuvan” Sahkari University on the directions of India’s Union government.

What’s behind this change, and what does it mean for the future—and legacy—of the institute? We explored in this story from last month.

The Collection is going on a hiatus

That’s a wrap for this edition, but before you go, we have a small announcement to make. 

Over the last 10 months, The Collection has brought to you over 40 editions filled with interesting themes and insights from The Ken’s rich archives. Now, however, we’ve decided to take a little hiatus to refresh and reenergise ourselves. I’m sure we’ll be back stronger and better in a little while, so keep an eye on this space!

As always, you can write to [email protected] if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or feedback you’d like to share. You’ll find this week’s entire collection below.