Business education in Asia
A global report about business education in Asia reveals some interesting facts. The report found that less than ten per cent of graduates from business schools get "suitable" jobs because most business schools trainings, including the Master of Business Administration (MBA), are not adequately designed to meet the skills required by industry.
The author wrote: “The major problem in Asia is most students go straight into graduate schools without any preparation or working experience. They receive a Bachelor's degree then continue into Master Degrees without any clue about what is needed in the industry. Most top schools in the U.S or Europe require at least two to five years of working experiences for admitting but there is no such rule in Asia. Many Asian families consider “the degree” as an important thing so they encourage their children to go after the highest degree possible, resulting in graduates with advanced degrees but could not find suitable jobs. Most advanced education programs in Asia are not adequately designed to match the industry’s demands so there are many MBA graduates working as clerks, bank tellers or secretaries. Adding to the problems is the proliferation of private schools established just to offer advanced education degrees, without adequate prepare students to function in the real world. Most schools do not have quality faculty to teach advanced courses or good training programs to develop the needed skills. With the exception of few top schools, most companies do not even visit these schools and hire their graduates.”
According to the author, China has the worst situation with more advance degreed graduates without jobs and India is second. Both countries have more unemployed MBA than any other countries in the world. In the last four years, the number of students enrolled in business, finance, banking and MBA have gone down by 40 per cent as a result of the financial recession as more students were switching to other fields, mostly information system management or computer science. A school officer explained: “Business schools have not been able to attract large number of students anymore. Today everything is about the STEM fields (Science, technology, Engineer, and Math) as students with a computer or science degrees, could go to work in the U.S or Europe, due to the workers shortage and changes in immigration laws.”
The author noted that in the past few years, more than 180 business schools in India have closed down in major cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. Another 160 universities are struggling for their survival and probably will close soon. Ten years ago, the number of private university specialized in Business and Banking had tripled to about 4,500 and graduated more than three hundred thousand MBA students per year. The author wrote: “There is no quality control in these universities. The placements are not commensurate with fees being charged and most faculties are not even qualified. They teach from textbooks that are thirty years old, and there is no admission standard, any students who can pay will get in. The rapid expansion of these “For profit schools” has destroyed the education system in India and gave a bad image for their graduates. Foreigners often mock “Indian MBAs” as “Bollywood degree” (Note: Bollywood is the name for Indian movies that always have a lot of songs and dances but no real story or acting).
China has much fewer private schools than India as many universities are still under controlled by State government. The issue there is the quality of training and the lack of knowledge about global business perspectives. The author found that a majority of business faculties are trained in the 70s and 80s before China open its market to outsiders. Many faculties have no work experience and do not understand how business is conducted outside of China. Students learn from obsolete theories and the old way of doing business such as family business or local business style. Most courses are strictly based on theories which lack the practical skills required by the business sector. Basically, the quality of education in China is poor, obsolete and does not meet the needs of the corporate world. The author stated: “They need to update and re-train faculty in emerging global business perspectives. What they teach is the 19th or early 20th century theories which do not make sense anymore.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
