MBA placement rates, salaries at IIMs, top B-schools, post Covid-19: Analysis

NEW DELHI: With rebound in businesses and the economy since the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s business schools saw placement packages increase in size in the 2021-22 academic session. The median salaries of placed graduates from management colleges also increased as the pandemic effect dampened.

The lowest median salary of students from top 10 Indian management colleges who secured jobs increased by 58.46% and highest median salary rose by 14.13% from 2020-21 to 2021-22, shows a comparison of data submitted for ranking by education ministry’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in the two academic years.

The median salary is the middle value between the highest and lowest pay of workers.

The 2022 edition of the NIRF India rankings used data from the 2020-21 academic session which coincided exactly with the Covid-19 pandemic which left a deep impact on business and functioning of colleges. The latest data considered for the 2023 edition of the rankings is from the 2021-22 academic session. That period saw the reopening and recovery of institutions and businesses. This is the eighth consecutive edition of rankings of institutions of higher education in India since 2016.

The Indian economy grew at a rate of 8.7% in the 2021-22 financial year, 1.5 points more than the previous year’s growth.

Top MBA colleges: Placements

While Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore retained their first and second ranks respectively, IIM Kozhikode moved two ranks up from last year's ranking and bagged the third spot, replacing IIM Calcutta in the management category of NIRF ranking 2023.

IIM Calcutta has moved to the fourth position this year while the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, an engineering institute, has retained the fifth spot in NIRF. IIM Lucknow retained the sixth position while National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) Mumbai came seventh. NITIE Mumbai has now become IIM Mumbai. IIM Indore has moved to the eight position this year and Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur has moved to ninth spot. IIT Bombay has replaced IIT Madras at the tenth spot.

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IIM salary trends

In 2020-21, the median salary of placed graduates from the top 10 management institutes had ranged from Rs 13 lakh at IIT Madras (Rank 10 in 2022) to Rs 27.60 lakh at IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta. The median salary of placed graduates of top 10 management colleges increased in 2021-22, ranging from Rs 20.6 lakh at IIT Delhi to Rs 31.50 lakh at IIM Bangalore.

This means that the lowest median salary of students from top 10 management colleges who secured jobs increased by 58.46% and highest median salary has increased by 14.13%.

Top 10 B-School: Placement %, salary

Among the top 10 B-schools, IIM Kozhikode recorded the maximum 32.5 % increase in the median salary of students from Rs 20.5 lakh in 2020-21 to Rs 26.50 lakh in 2021-22. IIM Ahmedabad witnessed a 8.69% increase in its median salary of placed graduates from Rs 27.60 lakh in 2020-21 to Rs 30 lakh in 2021-22

Also Read | IIM Ahmedabad cluster 2 summer placements held for PGP students; Mahindra top recruiter

Placement packages

A total of 776 institutions participated in the 2023 NIRF management school rankings, up from 751 the previous year.

Although Galgotias University, Greater Noida, improved its ranking from 93 in 2022 to 91 in NIRF ranking 2023 and the salary package, from Rs 3.20 lakh to Rs 3.48 lakh, it still remains the B-school with the lowest median salary among placed graduates.

This year, three institutions in the top 100 reported a median salary less than Rs 4 lakh and six had between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 5 lakh. Last year, six institutions in the top 100 had a median salary less than Rs 4 lakh and four had between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.

A dozen of the top 100 B-schools reported a median salary in the range of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh per year for their graduates of the two-year management programme in 2021-22. Last year, there were more than 25 such institutes.

Only 3,050 out of 4,685 graduates – or, 65.1% – secured jobs in the 21 institutions that had their median salaries in the Rs 3 lakh to Rs 6 lakh range in 2022-23. The placement percentage is the total number of students placed out of the number of graduates.

The lowest placement of graduates – at just 26.1% – was recorded at Punjab’s Lovely Professional University, Phagwara where only 126 out of 482 graduates got jobs and two were selected for higher studies.

Median salary Rs 6 lakh and below

An earlier analysis of IIM MBA fees and placement data by Careers360 had shown that the bottom 50% earners were graduating from IIMs with an average of Rs 17.06 lakh debt.