In India, Universities are offering more than 187 Higher Education programs of which only 10 programs have a whopping 80.3% enrolments of total students (All India Survey on Higher Education). Among, MBA is considered one of the most sought-after and high-paying job-oriented graduate programs. Additionally, it admits students from various disciplines. This trend leads to lots of MBA programs mushrooming in India with the mass following in both private and public universities.

The massive pursuing from the last two decades has created the morass wherein MBA programs are unable to create the desired result. The program has become stagnant, out-of-sync with the realities, and the concepts of management remain in books only. So, what we are expecting from MBA, the management graduate trainee hunting for a good job or the managers who can create change with the changing scenario of new-normal life.

Simultaneously, campus recruiters hire MBA professionals who can hit the ground running without too much training by the company. They look for aptitude and specific skill sets who can join them with minimum investments and additional efforts. Onboarding of recruits nowadays is expected in weeks or a month rather than the months or years. There are various job designations in addition to Business, Project Team Leads, and Executives that did not exist five years ago. The designations demand knowledge and skillsets which are not a part of MBA programs at many universities.

The trend galore a sense of insecurities and a doubt for pursuing MBA as a professional degree although there is just a need of upgrading the MBA curriculum and implementing the advanced pedagogy. Project-based learning, a transdisciplinary approach, and updated curriculum sync with the industry demand can create MBA graduates with all required professional qualifications.

There may be courses in the MBA which have become outdated as many corporate/ organizational processes have been automated. The virtual corporation has changed the roles and KRAs of various profiles and the manual functioning needs upgraded knowledge and upliftment of skill sets. The popular specializations in demand are Marketing, Supply Chain, Human Resource, and MBA in International Business. New tools and techniques demand to be updated in the courseware and must be the upgraded version - a need arises to synchronize the curriculum with the industry demand.

The way out of this mire is to integrate the role of practitioners in their curriculum, content design, strategy, assessment, process, and delivery as an imperative. Institutions and faculty members can include some measures that can help:

The above-specialized factors may be challenging to adopt, scale and standardized but the way out is clear. The education industry needs to inculcate this collaborative spirit along with their academic structure and adopt work ethic to move business education forward.

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