Why Is the MBA Model Failing in Indore? A Five-Year Case-Cum-Research Analysis of Vacant Seats, Faculty Shortages, Student Attendance, Industrial Exposure and Weak Employability in Private MBA Institutions

 

CASE-CUM-RESEARCH PAPER

Why Is the MBA Model Failing in Indore?

A Five-Year Case-Cum-Research Analysis of Vacant Seats, Faculty Shortages, Student Attendance, Industrial Exposure and Weak Employability in Private MBA Institutions

 

Abstract

The expansion of MBA education in Indore has created a paradoxical situation. The city has a strong industrial, commercial, educational and service-sector base, yet many MBA institutions struggle to attract and retain students. At the same time, a small number of reputed institutions continue to experience strong demand.

This case-cum-research paper argues that the problem cannot be explained merely through excess MBA seats. The deeper issue is the quality and credibility of the educational delivery model adopted by some private MBA institutions.

The five-year analysis, covering approximately 2021–2026, examines vacant seats, repeated counselling, institutional differentiation, faculty availability, student attendance, industrial visits, practical exposure, placement orientation, infrastructure, specialisation relevance and perceived return on investment.

Particular attention is given to a model in which an MBA department may operate with a very small permanent faculty base, students may attend classes irregularly, teaching may become examination-oriented, industrial visits may be infrequent or absent, and the programme may continue largely as a degree-awarding structure rather than as an intensive management-development programme.

Such a model creates a serious value gap:

Students pay for an MBA but may not receive the academic, professional and industry ecosystem they associate with an MBA.

The paper therefore proposes that the Indore MBA crisis should not be described simply as a demand crisis. It is better understood as a combination of capacity excess, quality differentiation, weak academic delivery, poor industry integration and declining student confidence in low-value MBA institutions.

The central conclusion is that the MBA degree itself has not failed. Rather, the low-differentiation, low-investment and low-engagement MBA delivery model is increasingly losing market legitimacy.

Keywords: MBA, Indore, private colleges, vacant seats, faculty shortage, student attendance, industrial visits, placement, employability, management education, DTE, MPOnline, ROI, academic quality.

 

1. Introduction

Indore has become one of the most important educational and commercial centres of Madhya Pradesh. The city has universities, autonomous institutions, private colleges and management institutes offering MBA programmes in Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Business Analytics, International Business, Foreign Trade, Entrepreneurship, Tourism and other areas.

However, the growth of MBA institutions has not produced a corresponding increase in demand for every MBA seat.

The evidence from successive admission cycles demonstrates a growing divergence:

A few institutions remain highly preferred, while many other institutions struggle to fill their approved intake.

The conventional explanation is:

“There are too many MBA seats.”

That explanation is correct but incomplete.

A more fundamental question is:

Why are students willing to compete for some MBA institutions but unwilling to join many others even when seats are readily available?

This paper argues that students increasingly evaluate the actual value of the MBA experience, rather than merely the existence of an MBA degree.

Students and parents increasingly ask:

Who will teach us?

How many permanent faculty members are available?

Do faculty members have industry and research experience?

Are classes conducted regularly?

Do students actually attend college?

Is attendance academically meaningful?

Are there industrial visits?

Are there internships?

Are students exposed to companies?

Is there a functioning placement cell?

What skills are developed?

What is the median placement salary?

What happens after graduation?

When an institution cannot convincingly answer these questions, the MBA seat becomes difficult to sell.

 

2. Research Problem

The central problem investigated in this paper is:

Why are MBA seats remaining vacant in a city that has a substantial graduate population, industrial base and employment ecosystem?

The paper proposes that vacancy is an output variable.

Behind vacancy may lie several underlying variables:

Faculty quality

↓

Teaching quality

↓

Student attendance

↓

Industry exposure

↓

Skills

↓

Placement

↓

Reputation

↓

Student demand

↓

Seat utilisation

Thus:

Vacant seats may be the final visible symptom of a much deeper institutional-quality problem.

 

3. Research Objectives

The study has the following objectives:

To examine the five-year pattern of MBA vacancies in Indore.

To analyse the growth of MBA capacity relative to effective student demand.

To examine the role of private institutions in creating excess MBA capacity.

To investigate the relationship between faculty availability and perceived programme quality.

To examine irregular student attendance as a possible indicator of weak engagement.

To analyse the absence or limited frequency of industrial visits and practical exposure.

To examine whether some MBA programmes operate primarily around examinations rather than employability.

To analyse the relationship between industry exposure, placement credibility and student demand.

To distinguish between a genuine MBA-demand crisis and rejection of low-value MBA institutions.

To develop a framework for rebuilding the MBA model in Indore.

 

4. Research Questions

RQ1

Has MBA demand actually declined in Indore, or has it become concentrated among selected institutions?

RQ2

Does excess private-sector MBA capacity contribute to vacant seats?

RQ3

Does faculty inadequacy affect student perception of MBA quality?

RQ4

Does irregular student attendance reduce the effectiveness of MBA education?

RQ5

Does the absence of industrial visits and practical exposure reduce perceived MBA value?

RQ6

Can an MBA department provide meaningful management education with an extremely small faculty base?

RQ7

Is examination-oriented education replacing experiential management education in some institutions?

RQ8

Why do students prefer certain MBA institutions even when cheaper or more easily accessible seats are available elsewhere?

 

5. Research Methodology

This is a case-cum-secondary-data research study with an institutional-quality analytical framework.

The five-year period covers approximately:

2021–2022 to 2025–2026, with 2026 admission developments treated as the current-year update.

The study uses:

MP DTE/MPOnline counselling information;

DAVV admission and vacancy information;

published institutional notices;

counselling outcomes;

AICTE management-education data;

publicly available institutional information;

reported vacancy data;

programme-level information;

placement information where available; and

an analytical framework for evaluating private MBA delivery.

 

6. An Important Methodological Limitation

A major problem in researching MBA education is that approved intake is not the same as actual enrolment.

Similarly:

Approved intake ≠ applicants

Applicants ≠ allotted students

Allotted students ≠ students who actually join

Joined students ≠ regularly attending students

Regularly attending students ≠ successfully skilled graduates

Therefore, the study separates the following variables:

Variable	Meaning
Approved Intake	Regulatory capacity
Applicants	Students expressing demand
Allotments	Students receiving seats
Admissions	Students actually joining
Attendance	Students participating academically
Completion	Students completing the programme
Placement	Students obtaining employment
Vacancy	Capacity remaining unused

This distinction is particularly important in private MBA education.

 

7. Five-Year MBA Market Evidence

7.1 2021: Vacancy was already visible

The 2021 admission cycle demonstrates that vacancy was not a phenomenon that suddenly emerged in 2025 or 2026.

DAVV issued notices relating to vacant MBA seats and additional counselling.

The evidence establishes that even established management programmes were sometimes required to undertake additional admission activity.

Interpretation

The MBA market was already showing signs of uneven demand.

 

8. 2022: Large-Scale Vacancy

The 2022 DTE counselling cycle provides much stronger evidence.

Approximately 2,500 MBA seats were reported vacant in the Indore division, leading to additional college-level counselling.

This is a major indicator of excess capacity.

The problem therefore cannot be explained only by one institution or one specialisation.

It indicates a broader regional mismatch:

MBA capacity had expanded faster than effective student demand.

 

9. 2023: Selective Demand Becomes Visible

The 2023 admission cycle demonstrated that vacancy was not uniform.

Some programmes and institutions continued to attract students, while several specialised MBA programmes had remaining vacancies.

This produced the first strong indication of market segmentation.

Students were increasingly distinguishing between:

MBA as a qualification

and

MBA from a particular institution.

 

10. 2024: The Two-Tier MBA Market

The 2024 evidence strengthened this conclusion.

Institutions such as IIPS, IMS and SGSITS remained among the preferred MBA choices in counselling.

At the same time, substantial vacancies appeared in several MBA specialisations.

This demonstrates:

MBA demand was being concentrated rather than disappearing uniformly.

The market was beginning to behave like a two-tier system.

Tier I

High institutional reputation + strong demand.

Tier II

Low differentiation + weak demand + repeated counselling.

 

11. 2025: Institutional Reputation Becomes a Stronger Signal

The 2025 DTE counselling data continued to demonstrate differences in institutional demand.

Different institutions recorded substantially different counselling rank ranges.

This provides a form of revealed student preference.

Students were effectively communicating through their choices:

“Not every MBA seat has the same value.”

The MBA label alone was no longer sufficient.

 

12. 2026: The Paradox Becomes Unmistakable

The 2026 DAVV admission cycle provides particularly strong evidence.

After two counselling rounds, more than 500 MBA seats were reported vacant across several programmes, with a subsequent final counselling process for remaining seats.

Yet selected MBA programmes simultaneously attracted extraordinary demand.

Approximately 300 students reportedly competed for only 32 seats in seven selected MBA programmes offered through IMS and the School of Economics.

This creates a remarkable contradiction:

Hundreds of MBA seats vacant + hundreds of applicants competing for a small number of preferred seats.

Therefore:

The problem is not simply lack of MBA demand.

It is:

Demand for a credible MBA versus rejection of a low-value MBA.

 

13. The Private MBA College Problem

The vacancy statistics, however, reveal only one side of the story.

The deeper issue is the institutional delivery model.

A number of private MBA institutions face a difficult economic equation.

Suppose an institution has:

180 approved seats

but receives only:

40–60 students.

The institution must still maintain:

faculty;

classrooms;

laboratories;

library;

administration;

examination systems;

placement infrastructure;

compliance;

student services.

When enrolment falls, some institutions may attempt to minimise operating costs.

This creates a potentially dangerous cycle:

Low admissions

↓

Low revenue

↓

Cost reduction

↓

Reduced faculty/infrastructure investment

↓

Weak academic experience

↓

Poor student satisfaction

↓

Poor reputation

↓

Lower admissions

The institution can therefore enter a quality-decline spiral.

 

14. Faculty Adequacy: The Hidden Variable

One of the most important issues requiring investigation is faculty adequacy.

An MBA programme is not merely a classroom and a university examination.

Management education requires faculty expertise in:

Marketing;

Finance;

Human Resource Management;

Economics;

Statistics;

Operations;

Strategic Management;

Business Research;

Business Analytics;

Entrepreneurship;

International Business.

A department operating with only a very small number of faculty members may face serious academic limitations if the same faculty members are expected to cover numerous subjects and batches.

For example, a department with:

three faculty members

cannot automatically provide the same academic ecosystem as a department with a properly diversified faculty team.

The issue is not simply the numerical ratio.

It is also:

Subject coverage + faculty qualification + research activity + industry experience + mentoring + academic administration.

 

15. The “Three-Faculty MBA Department” Problem

This paper proposes a specific research question:

Can a full MBA programme provide meaningful academic breadth, specialisation and student mentoring when the department operates with only a minimal faculty base?

This should be empirically tested rather than assumed.

The research dataset should therefore collect:

Variable	Measurement
Total MBA students	Number
Permanent faculty	Number
Visiting faculty	Number
Faculty-student ratio	Students/faculty
Subject coverage	Number of subjects
Faculty specialisation	Discipline
Faculty qualification	PhD/MBA/NET/etc.
Industry experience	Years
Research publications	Number
Faculty turnover	Annual departures

The important issue is not to accuse every small department of poor quality.

Rather:

A very low faculty base should be treated as a potential risk indicator requiring verification.

 

16. Student Attendance: The Invisible Crisis

Another important variable is student attendance.

In a conventional MBA model:

Learning requires participation.

Students are expected to participate in:

lectures;

case discussions;

presentations;

group projects;

simulations;

industry interactions;

workshops;

research projects.

However, where students attend college irregularly, the MBA can gradually become an examination-centred programme.

The sequence can become:

Admission

→

Minimal attendance

→

Assignment completion

→

University examination

→

Degree

This produces a serious question:

Is the student actually receiving management education, or merely completing the formal requirements for an MBA degree?

 

17. Attendance as a Research Variable

The study therefore recommends collecting:

Monthly attendance percentage

for every MBA cohort.

For example:

Attendance category	Interpretation
75%+	Regular participation
60–74%	Moderate participation
40–59%	Low participation
Below 40%	Very low participation

These categories should be used analytically rather than as allegations against particular institutions.

A college with high approved intake but very low actual classroom participation may have a different problem from a college with genuinely active students.

 

18. Examination-Oriented MBA versus Learning-Oriented MBA

A critical distinction should be introduced.

Examination-oriented MBA

The system focuses on:

syllabus completion;

notes;

assignments;

internal marks;

university examination;

degree completion.

Learning-oriented MBA

The system focuses on:

cases;

projects;

presentations;

field research;

industrial visits;

internships;

simulations;

entrepreneurship;

analytics;

consulting projects;

real business problems.

The difference is fundamental.

An MBA is supposed to develop managerial capability, not merely examination performance.

 

19. Industrial Visits: A Major Missing Link

Industrial exposure is particularly important in Indore because the city and surrounding region contain:

manufacturing;

automobiles;

pharmaceuticals;

engineering;

logistics;

food processing;

retail;

banking;

services;

startups;

industrial estates.

The Indore–Pithampur–Dewas industrial corridor provides substantial potential for management students to observe:

production;

supply chain;

quality management;

human resources;

marketing;

finance;

inventory;

export;

logistics.

Therefore, the absence of meaningful industrial visits represents a missed educational opportunity.

 

20. Industrial Visit Index

The paper proposes an Industrial Exposure Index (IEI).

It may be calculated as:

IEI = Annual Industrial Visits + Industry Lectures + Live Projects + Internships + Company Interaction

A weighted index can subsequently be developed.

For example:

Indicator	Weight
Industrial visits	20%
Industry guest lectures	20%
Live projects	20%
Internships	25%
Corporate mentoring	15%

This creates an objective measure of industry integration.

 

21. Why “No Industrial Visit” Matters

An industrial visit should not be treated merely as a picnic.

A properly designed visit should enable students to understand:

Production

How products are manufactured.

HR

How workers are recruited, trained and evaluated.

Marketing

How products reach customers.

Finance

How working capital and investment are managed.

Operations

How inventory, quality and logistics are controlled.

Strategy

How firms compete.

Without these experiences, students may complete an MBA without ever seeing how a real organisation operates.

 

22. Internship Problem

The internship should be another central research variable.

A meaningful MBA internship should involve:

Company + Supervisor + Project + Data + Report + Evaluation

An internship that becomes only a certificate has limited educational value.

Therefore, the research should distinguish:

Genuine internship

from

Certificate-based internship.

The dataset should record:

internship duration;

company;

department;

project;

supervisor;

stipend;

evaluation;

final output.

 

23. Placement as the Final Market Test

Ultimately, students judge MBA institutions through outcomes.

The most important indicators include:

placement rate;

median salary;

average salary;

recruiter count;

job profile;

internship conversion;

higher-study progression;

entrepreneurship;

alumni career progression.

The strongest indicator should be:

Median salary rather than only highest salary.

A single high salary can create an attractive advertisement.

Median salary provides a better representation of the typical outcome.

 

24. The ROI Problem

Students increasingly calculate:

MBA Cost = Fees + Living Cost + Two Years of Opportunity Cost

against:

MBA Benefit = Salary + Career Growth + Network + Skills

Therefore:

ROI = Career Benefit / Total MBA Cost

If the expected employment outcome is weak, students may rationally decide:

“Why spend two years doing this MBA?”

This is particularly important for low-cost private MBA colleges because the alternative may be direct employment or a specialised professional qualification.

 

25. The Private MBA Value Gap

The paper proposes the following model:

Institutional Promise

“Industry-oriented MBA”

↓

Actual Delivery

Limited faculty

↓

Irregular attendance

↓

Few practical projects

↓

Few industrial visits

↓

Weak internship

↓

Limited recruiter exposure

↓

Weak placement

↓

Student Perception

“Low return on investment”

↓

Market Outcome

Vacant seats.

This framework connects academic delivery directly with admission demand.

 

26. Five-Year Structural Model

The five-year period can therefore be interpreted as follows:

Period	Market development	Underlying issue
2021	Vacancy already visible	Initial demand-supply mismatch
2022	Large MBA vacancy in Indore division	Excess capacity
2023	Programme-level vacancies	Selective demand
2024	Strong preference for selected institutions	Institutional differentiation
2025	Counselling evidence of unequal demand	Reputation effect
2026	Hundreds vacant + intense demand for selected programmes	Polarised MBA market

The evidence suggests that the market has moved from:

Expansion

to

Oversupply

to

Differentiation

to

Student rejection of low-value capacity.

 

27. Five-Year Institutional Dataset: Evidence-Based Reconstruction

The five-year analysis should not treat every MBA institution as having the same quality, demand or academic structure. The available evidence demonstrates substantial differences between institutions and programmes.

However, a methodological distinction is essential.

The publicly available DTE/DAVV records provide relatively strong evidence for intake, allotment, vacancy and counselling demand, whereas variables such as average student attendance, faculty attendance, number of industrial visits, internship quality and actual classroom engagement are generally not published in a uniform five-year institutional database.

Therefore, these variables must not be assigned invented values.

The present study consequently separates the evidence into:

A. Directly observable admission variables

approved/intended intake;

seats allotted;

reported vacancies;

counselling rounds;

opening and closing ranks;

final admission information where published.

B. Institutional academic variables

faculty strength;

student-faculty ratio;

attendance;

industrial visits;

internships;

placement;

median salary.

For the second category, only verified institutional disclosures should be entered into the final dataset.

 

27.1 Verified Admission Dataset

The following table records the major verified evidence available for the five-year period.

Year	Institution/Market	Verified observation	Interpretation
2021	DAVV/IMS	Additional counselling was conducted for vacant MBA Executive seats	Vacancy existed at programme level
2022	Indore Division	About 2,500 MBA seats were reported vacant by DTE officials	Large excess capacity became visible
2022	Indore private MBA market	Contemporary reporting referred to approximately 50 private MBA colleges and more than 7,500 seats	Large private-sector capacity
2024	DAVV	375 vacancies across 17 PG courses after counselling; MBA programmes formed part of the vacancy pool	Vacancy was programme-specific
2024	DAVV MBA Rural Development	55 vacancies out of 60 seats	91.7% reported vacancy
2024	DAVV MBA Foreign Trade	52 vacancies out of 60 seats	86.7% reported vacancy
2024	DAVV MBA Media Management	28 vacancies out of 40 seats	70.0% reported vacancy
2024	DAVV MBA Financial Services	13 vacancies out of 60 seats	21.7% reported vacancy
2024	DAVV MBA Business Economics	13 vacancies out of 60 seats	21.7% reported vacancy
2024	DAVV MBA International Business	19 vacancies out of 60 seats	31.7% reported vacancy
2025	MP DTE	Private MBA institutions recorded different opening/closing ranks and allotment volumes	Institutional preference differed
2026	DAVV	More than 500 MBA vacancies were reported after two counselling rounds	Severe programme-level vacancy
2026	DAVV	229 MBA seats remained for the final CLC stage after two rounds	Vacancy persisted into late counselling
2026	Selected DAVV MBA programmes	Nearly 300 candidates for 32 seats	Approximately 9.4 candidates per seat

The 2022 DTE figure of approximately 2,500 vacant MBA seats is directly reported as an Indore division figure and should not be incorrectly described as the final vacancy rate of private Indore colleges.

The contemporary 2022 reporting also described approximately 50 private MBA colleges in Indore with more than 7,500 seats. Because the vacancy and capacity figures were reported at different stages and may use different administrative definitions, they should not be divided to create an artificial official vacancy percentage.

 

27.2 2026 Programme-Level Vacancy Dataset

The strongest currently available programme-level evidence is the DAVV 2026 vacancy list.

MBA Programme	Vacant seats after two rounds
MBA Marketing Management	33
MBA Financial Administration	37
MBA Human Resource Management	54
MBA Media Management	30
MBA E-Commerce	35
MBA Advertising & PR	33
MBA Entrepreneurship	29
MBA Tourism	35
MBA Computer Management	33
MBA Foreign Trade	42
MBA Business Economics	34
MBA Business Analytics	36
MBA Financial Services	36
MBA International Business	34
Sum of published programme figures	494

The published report states that DAVV had more than 500 MBA seats vacant, while the 14 programme figures reproduced in the report add to 494. The academically correct treatment is therefore to report:

“DAVV reported more than 500 MBA vacancies; the published figures for the 14 listed programmes total 494.”

The difference should not be silently eliminated or converted into a fabricated exact figure.

 

27.3 Final 2026 Counselling Evidence

The vacancy situation subsequently improved.

On 6 August 2026, DAVV reported that 229 MBA seats remained vacant across 14 programmes after two rounds of CUET-PG counselling, and a final college-level counselling process was opened.

By 18 August 2026, the university reported that selected MBA programmes had experienced extremely strong demand. Nearly 300 candidates appeared for only 32 available seats, and the seats were filled within approximately two hours.

The approximate demand ratio was:

300 ÷ 32 = 9.375 candidates per seat

or approximately:

9.4 candidates per seat.

This is the strongest evidence that the Indore MBA market cannot be described simply as a market in which students have stopped wanting an MBA.

 

27.4 Five-Year Data Interpretation

The verified evidence produces the following sequence:

Year	Evidence	Analytical conclusion
2021	Additional MBA counselling	Vacancy already existed
2022	~2,500 MBA vacancies in Indore division	Excess capacity became substantial
2023	Programme-level differences became increasingly visible	Demand was selective
2024	Some MBA programmes had vacancy rates above 80% while others performed substantially better	Programme differentiation
2025	DTE counselling showed different institutional rank/allotment patterns	Institutional differentiation
2026	>500 reported vacancies followed by intense competition for selected programmes	Strong demand polarisation

Therefore, the five-year evidence supports:

A redistribution of MBA demand rather than a complete disappearance of MBA demand.

 

28. Actual MBA Institutional Quality Variables

The original version treated faculty, attendance, industrial visits, internships and placement as if five-year numerical data already existed for every private MBA college.

That would not be methodologically correct.

The correct empirical approach is to distinguish verified data from unverified institutional claims.

The following variables therefore require institution-wise documentary evidence:

Variable	Correct evidence required
Faculty	Annual faculty list/official disclosure
Student-faculty ratio	Enrolment + verified faculty count
Attendance	Attendance records or official aggregate disclosure
Industrial visits	Dated institutional reports/photos/notices
Internship	Internship records/company/project evidence
Placement	Placement report
Median salary	Audited/official placement data
Research	Faculty publication records
Alumni	Verified alumni database
Infrastructure	Institutional disclosure/inspection evidence

Consequently, this study does not state that every private MBA college has inadequate faculty, poor attendance or no industrial visits.

Instead, it establishes a more scientifically defensible proposition:

Where verified institutional records demonstrate low faculty strength, low attendance, limited industry exposure or weak placement outcomes, those variables can be tested against MBA demand and vacancy.

 

28.1 Faculty Data

Faculty strength should be recorded annually.

The minimum dataset should contain:

Institution	Year	MBA students	Permanent faculty	Visiting faculty	Faculty turnover	Student/faculty ratio
Institution 1	2021	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Calculated
Institution 1	2022	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Calculated
Institution 1	2023	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Calculated
Institution 1	2024	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Calculated
Institution 1	2025	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Calculated
Institution 1	2026	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Verified value	Calculated

No value should be entered merely because it appears reasonable.

 

28.2 The Three-Faculty Issue

The earlier paper stated that some MBA departments operate with three faculty members.

For an empirical paper, this should be rewritten as an observable institutional variable, not as a general accusation.

For each institution:

Permanent Faculty = F

Enrolled MBA Students = S

Therefore:

Student-Faculty Ratio = S/F

If an institution has:

180 students

and:

3 permanent faculty members

then:

180 / 3 = 60 students per permanent faculty member

This calculation can be made only when both figures are documented.

The study should then compare the result with other institutions.

The research question becomes:

Do institutions with substantially higher student-faculty ratios experience higher vacancy or weaker placement outcomes?

That is a testable empirical question.

 

28.3 Student Attendance

Attendance should not be guessed from student presence on campus.

The actual variable should be:

Average Attendance Rate = Total attendance recorded / Total possible attendance × 100

For each institution and year, the dataset should record:

Institution	Year	Enrolment	Average attendance	Students below attendance threshold
Institution A	2021	Verified	Verified	Verified
Institution A	2022	Verified	Verified	Verified
Institution A	2023	Verified	Verified	Verified
Institution A	2024	Verified	Verified	Verified
Institution A	2025	Verified	Verified	Verified
Institution A	2026	Verified	Verified	Verified

If attendance data are unavailable, the paper should state:

“Institution-level attendance data were not publicly available and were therefore excluded from quantitative regression.”

That is scientifically stronger than inventing numbers.

 

28.4 Industrial Visits

The industrial-visit variable should similarly be based on actual documented activity.

For every institution:

Annual Industrial Visits = Number of verified visits conducted during the academic year.

The dataset should record:

Institution	Year	Industrial visits	Companies visited	Students participating
A	2021	Verified	Verified	Verified
A	2022	Verified	Verified	Verified
A	2023	Verified	Verified	Verified
A	2024	Verified	Verified	Verified
A	2025	Verified	Verified	Verified
A	2026	Verified	Verified	Verified

A visit should be counted only when documentary evidence exists.

 

28.5 Internship

The same principle applies to internships.

The study should distinguish:

Students enrolled

from

Students completing verified internships.

The annual internship rate is:

Internship Rate = Students completing verified internships / Total eligible students × 100

This prevents institutions from receiving analytical credit merely because they issue internship certificates.

 

28.6 Placement

Placement must also be treated as a measured outcome.

The primary variables should be:

Placement Rate = Students placed / Placement-eligible students × 100

and:

Median Salary = Middle salary of placed students

where the institution has sufficient verified placement data.

The study should not use only:

Highest package.

A high maximum salary can coexist with weak typical outcomes.

 

29. Actual MBA Quality Index

The earlier formula:

MIQI = F + E + I + N + P + R + A

is too simplistic because the variables have different scales.

A valid index should first standardise each variable.

The revised index is therefore:

MBA Institutional Quality Index (MIQI)

MIQI = w₁F + w₂E + w₃I + w₄N + w₅P + w₆R + w₇A + w₈G

where:

F = Faculty adequacy

E = Student engagement

I = Industrial exposure

N = Internship quality

P = Placement outcome

R = Research activity

A = Alumni engagement

G = Infrastructure/academic resources

The weights must be determined transparently.

They should not be chosen after seeing the results.

A practical empirical procedure is to standardise each indicator and either:

use theoretically justified weights; or

use factor analysis/PCA to derive statistically supported weights.

 

29.1 Example of Standardisation

For a positive indicator:

Z = (X − Mean X) / Standard Deviation

For a negative indicator such as vacancy:

Zᵣ = −(X − Mean X) / Standard Deviation

This ensures that higher MIQI consistently represents better institutional performance.

The index should therefore be calculated after actual institutional data are collected.

 

30. Actual Statistical Model

The principal dependent variable is:

Seat Fill Rate

Seat Fill Rate = Final Admissions / Approved Intake × 100

The second dependent variable is:

Vacancy Rate

Vacancy Rate = (Approved Intake − Final Admissions) / Approved Intake × 100

For institutions where final admission data are available, these become directly calculable.

The principal regression should be:

Vacancy Rate = β₀ + β₁ Faculty Adequacy + β₂ Student Engagement + β₃ Industrial Exposure + β₄ Internship + β₅ Placement + β₆ Institutional Reputation + β₇ Fee + β₈ Intake + ε

The coefficients should be estimated from the actual five-year institutional panel.

No coefficient should be reported until the underlying institution-year observations have been collected.

 

30.1 Panel-Data Structure

Because the study covers multiple institutions over multiple years, the appropriate structure is:

Institution × Year

For example:

20 institutions × 6 years = 120 institution-year observations.

If only 10 institutions have complete six-year records:

10 × 6 = 60 observations.

The final number of observations must be reported transparently.

This allows the study to move beyond a newspaper-style description of vacancy and become a genuine longitudinal management-education study.

 

30.2 Fixed-Effects Model

If sufficient institution-level data become available, the preferred model can be:

VacancyRateᵢₜ = β₁Facultyᵢₜ + β₂Attendanceᵢₜ + β₃Industryᵢₜ + β₄Internshipᵢₜ + β₅Placementᵢₜ + αᵢ + γₜ + εᵢₜ

where:

i = institution;

t = year;

αᵢ = institution-specific effect;

γₜ = year effect;

εᵢₜ = error term.

This controls for stable differences between institutions and common year-specific effects.

 

30.3 Important Causal Correction

The earlier paper presented this chain as though it had already been empirically demonstrated:

Excess Capacity → Lower Admissions → Financial Pressure → Cost Minimisation → Faculty Constraints → Low Attendance → Reduced Industry Exposure → Weak Placement → Poor Perception → Further Vacancy

That is too strong for the available evidence.

The verified evidence currently establishes the vacancy and demand pattern.

It does not yet establish the entire causal chain.

The scientifically correct wording is:

The five-year admission evidence establishes substantial excess capacity and demand polarisation. Faculty adequacy, attendance, industry exposure, internship quality and placement are plausible institutional mechanisms that require institution-level testing before causal conclusions can be drawn.

This is a major improvement in research validity.

 

31. Revised Empirical Findings

Based on the currently verified data, the paper can make the following findings without inventing information.

Finding 1 — Excess capacity is real

DTE officials reported approximately 2,500 vacant MBA seats in the Indore division in November 2022.

Finding 2 — Private MBA capacity was large

Contemporary reporting in 2022 referred to approximately 50 private MBA colleges with more than 7,500 seats in Indore.

Finding 3 — Vacancy is programme-specific

In 2024, DAVV reported extremely high vacancy in some MBA programmes, including approximately 91.7% in MBA Rural Development and 86.7% in MBA Foreign Trade, using the reported 60-seat intake figures.

Finding 4 — Vacancy persisted into 2026

DAVV reported more than 500 MBA vacancies after two counselling rounds in July 2026.

Finding 5 — Vacancy declined after additional counselling

By early August 2026, the remaining vacancy had fallen to 229 seats across 14 MBA programmes.

Finding 6 — High demand simultaneously existed

Nearly 300 candidates competed for 32 seats in selected MBA programmes in August 2026.

The implied candidate-to-seat ratio was approximately 9.4:1.

Finding 7 — Therefore, MBA demand is not uniformly absent

The simultaneous existence of high vacancy and high competition demonstrates substantial heterogeneity in MBA demand.

 

31.1 What the Data Do NOT Yet Establish

The present secondary dataset does not yet establish, for every private MBA college in Indore:

that only three faculty members run the department;

that students do not attend classes;

that colleges conduct no industrial visits;

that internships are only certificate exercises;

that colleges deliberately minimise faculty;

that placement outcomes are poor;

or that these factors caused vacancies.

Those propositions require documentary or primary institutional evidence.

This distinction is essential if the paper is intended for serious academic publication.

 

31.2 Final Empirical Interpretation

The evidence currently supports the following conclusion:

The Indore MBA market experienced substantial excess capacity during the 2021–2026 period, but the evidence does not support the conclusion that MBA demand disappeared. Instead, demand became increasingly differentiated by institution and programme.

The 2026 evidence is particularly powerful:

More than 500 reported MBA vacancies

↓

229 remaining after additional counselling

↓

Nearly 300 candidates competing for 32 selected seats

This sequence demonstrates that:

The market is sorting MBA programmes according to perceived value.

The next level of empirical research is therefore not to assume that weak faculty, low attendance or limited industrial exposure caused the vacancy.

It is to measure these variables institution by institution and test whether they statistically explain vacancy, student preference and placement outcomes.

That is the correct transition from a descriptive case study to a genuine five-year empirical case-cum-research paper.

 

32. Why Some MBA Colleges Still Attract Students

The opposite cycle exists in stronger institutions:

Strong Brand

↓

Good Applicants

↓

Strong Peer Group

↓

Strong Faculty

↓

Industry Exposure

↓

Better Internship

↓

Better Placement

↓

Strong Alumni

↓

Higher Reputation

↓

More Applicants

↓

Higher Selectivity

Thus, the market becomes increasingly polarised.

 

33. A New Interpretation of “MBA Failure”

The evidence does not support the broad conclusion:

“Students no longer want an MBA.”

A more defensible conclusion is:

Students increasingly reject MBA programmes that cannot demonstrate sufficient academic engagement, faculty quality, industry exposure, employability and return on investment.

Therefore:

MBA demand is not disappearing.

MBA demand is becoming selective.

 

34. What Private MBA Institutions Must Change

34.1 Faculty

Institutions should maintain a genuinely adequate faculty base rather than treating faculty only as a regulatory requirement.

34.2 Attendance

Attendance should represent actual learning engagement.

34.3 Industry Exposure

Every semester should contain meaningful corporate interaction.

34.4 Internships

Internships should be project-based rather than certificate-based.

34.5 Live Projects

Students should solve actual business problems.

34.6 Analytics

Students should develop Excel, statistics, data analysis and AI-supported business skills.

34.7 Placement

Placement should be measured through transparent outcomes.

34.8 Alumni

Alumni should actively participate in mentoring and recruitment.

 

35. What Indore Has as an Advantage

Indore does not suffer from a shortage of potential industry exposure.

This is particularly important.

The surrounding economic ecosystem includes:

Pithampur industrial area;

Dewas industrial region;

manufacturing;

automobile;

pharmaceuticals;

engineering;

retail;

banking;

logistics;

healthcare;

startups;

food processing;

services.

Therefore, if an MBA institution provides little or no industrial exposure, the problem is not necessarily lack of opportunity in the city.

It may be a problem of:

Institutional engagement with industry.

 

36. Policy Implication: From Seat Regulation to Outcome Measurement

The evidence from Indore between 2022 and 2026 indicates that regulation based primarily on the number of approved MBA seats is insufficient to explain the functioning of the MBA market.

The scale of capacity is evident. In August 2022, contemporary reporting placed the number of MBA seats across approximately 50 private colleges in Indore at more than 7,500. By November 2022, DTE officials reported approximately 2,500 vacant MBA seats in the Indore division, even after several rounds of counselling and the opening of an additional college-level counselling phase.

The problem subsequently appeared within DAVV itself. In September 2024, 375 seats remained vacant across 17 CUET-PG programmes after two counselling phases. Among the MBA programmes, Rural Development had 55 of 60 seats vacant, Foreign Trade had 52 of 60 vacant, Media Management had 28 vacant, International Business 19 vacant, and Financial Services and Business Economics 13 vacant each.

The 2025 evidence continued to show selective weakness. After three rounds of CUET-PG counselling, seven DAVV MBA programmes reportedly still had 15–20% of their seats vacant, leading to department-level direct admission.

The 2026 data provide the clearest evidence of the structural nature of the problem. After two rounds of counselling, DAVV reported more than 500 vacant MBA seats across 14 programmes. The subsequently reported programme-level vacancy list included 33 vacancies in Marketing Management, 37 in Financial Administration, 54 in Human Resource Management, 30 in Media Management, 35 in E-Commerce, 42 in Foreign Trade, 34 in Business Economics, 36 in Business Analytics, 36 in Financial Services and 34 in International Business.

The next counselling stage reduced the reported vacancy to 229 seats across the 14 MBA programmes. This reduction is important: it demonstrates that a vacancy recorded after one counselling round is not necessarily a permanent final vacancy.

At the same time, the final 2026 admission outcome demonstrates that the MBA market cannot be described simply as a collapse in demand. DAVV reported that nearly 300 candidates competed for only 32 seats across seven selected MBA programmes, with all 32 seats filled within approximately two hours.

Therefore, the empirical evidence supports a more precise regulatory conclusion:

The problem is not merely the number of MBA seats; it is the relationship between available capacity, programme differentiation, institutional reputation and measurable educational outcomes.

Consequently, future regulation should supplement input indicators such as approved intake with outcome indicators such as:

actual admissions;

final seat-fill rate;

student attendance;

faculty strength and stability;

faculty-student ratio;

internship participation;

industry projects;

live consulting/case projects;

placement rate;

median salary;

relevant employment;

alumni progression; and

student continuation and completion.

The policy direction is therefore a movement from input regulation alone toward measurable educational outcomes.

However, the present five-year public evidence establishes the vacancy and demand side much more strongly than it establishes institution-level attendance, faculty turnover or placement quality. Those variables must therefore be verified institution by institution before being used as causal explanations for vacant seats.

 

37. Evidence-Based MBA Transparency Dashboard

The analysis indicates the need for a standardised institutional disclosure system. The purpose is not simply to increase the amount of information available, but to make institutions comparable on variables that directly affect the economic value of an MBA.

A useful MBA transparency framework would record the following indicators annually:

Indicator	Required measurement	Analytical purpose
Approved intake	Number of sanctioned seats	Measures capacity
Actual admissions	Students finally admitted	Measures realised demand
Final vacancy	Approved intake − final admissions	Measures unused capacity
Seat-fill rate	Admissions / approved intake × 100	Measures institutional demand
Faculty strength	Actual teaching faculty	Measures academic capacity
Faculty-student ratio	Enrolled students / teaching faculty	Measures teaching intensity
Faculty turnover	Faculty leaving during the year	Measures academic stability
Attendance	Aggregate attendance percentage	Measures student engagement
Industrial exposure	Verified visits/projects	Measures practical exposure
Internship participation	Students completing internships	Measures experiential learning
Live projects	Completed industry/live projects	Measures applied learning
Recruiters	Number of verified recruiting organisations	Measures labour-market connection
Placement rate	Students placed / eligible students × 100	Measures employment outcome
Median salary	Median annual compensation	Measures typical financial outcome
Average salary	Mean annual compensation	Measures overall salary outcome
Highest salary	Highest verified compensation	Provides an upper-end outcome indicator
Alumni outcomes	Employment/higher education/entrepreneurship	Measures longer-term value

The central analytical variable should be the Seat Fill Rate:

Seat Fill Rate = Final Admissions / Approved Intake × 100

and its complementary measure:

Vacancy Rate = (Approved Intake − Final Admissions) / Approved Intake × 100

This distinction is important because the 2026 DAVV evidence shows how vacancy changes during counselling. More than 500 vacancies were reported after two rounds, while 229 remained at the subsequent final counselling stage.

The dashboard should therefore distinguish:

Approved seats → Seats allotted → Fee-confirmed admissions → Final admissions → Final vacancies

rather than treating every counselling-stage vacancy as a permanent institutional failure.

Such a system would also permit students and parents to compare institutions on educational value rather than advertising claims.

The DTE/MPOnline data already demonstrate that institutional demand can differ substantially. The 2024 first-round counselling data, for example, recorded actual allotments across individual private MBA institutions in Indore, including Indore Institute of Management and Research, IMI Business School, IMI Professional Studies and Idyllic Institute of Management.

Thus, institutional-level demand is measurable. The next step is to connect that demand data with verified academic and employment outcomes.

 

38. Researcher's Central Interpretation

The five-year evidence supports a three-level interpretation of the Indore MBA market.

Level 1 — Capacity Imbalance

The first problem is an imbalance between available capacity and effective demand.

The evidence is substantial.

In 2022, DTE officials reported approximately 2,500 vacant MBA seats in the Indore division.

In 2024, DAVV recorded substantial vacancies in several MBA programmes, including 55 of 60 seats in MBA Rural Development and 52 of 60 in MBA Foreign Trade.

In 2026, DAVV reported more than 500 vacant MBA seats after two rounds of counselling, followed by 229 vacancies at the subsequent CLC stage.

Therefore, excess capacity is empirically observable.

Level 2 — Programme and Institutional Differentiation

The second finding is more important.

Demand is not uniformly weak.

In 2026, approximately 300 candidates competed for 32 seats across seven selected MBA programmes at DAVV, and the seats were filled within approximately two hours.

This produces a striking contrast:

Large vacancies in several MBA programmes

versus

approximately 9.4 candidates per available seat in seven selected programmes.

The calculation is:

300 / 32 = 9.375 candidates per seat

Therefore, the evidence does not support the proposition that students have abandoned MBA education altogether.

Instead, it supports the proposition that students are differentiating between programmes and institutions.

Level 3 — Trust and Perceived Economic Value

The third level concerns institutional value.

The available admission data cannot by themselves prove that low faculty strength, poor attendance, absence of industrial visits or weak internships caused particular vacancies.

Those causal relationships require institution-level longitudinal evidence.

However, the market logic is clear enough to establish a testable proposition:

When students perceive a large difference between the cost of an MBA and its expected academic and employment return, demand for that particular programme can weaken.

The 2026 evidence is particularly important because strong competition for selected programmes occurred simultaneously with substantial vacancies in other MBA programmes.

Consequently, the central market phenomenon is better described as:

Demand redistribution rather than disappearance of MBA demand.

This is a stronger interpretation than simply stating that “students are not interested in MBA.”

 

39. Conclusion

The five-year evidence from Indore shows that the MBA market is undergoing structural differentiation and capacity adjustment.

The available evidence does not support either of two extreme explanations:

Explanation 1: “There are simply too many MBA colleges.”

or

Explanation 2: “Students are no longer interested in management education.”

Both are incomplete.

The data show something more complex.

In 2022, DTE officials reported approximately 2,500 vacant MBA seats in the Indore division despite additional counselling.

In 2024, DAVV recorded major programme-level vacancies, including 55 of 60 seats in MBA Rural Development and 52 of 60 in MBA Foreign Trade.

In 2025, several DAVV MBA programmes still had 15–20% vacancies after three rounds of counselling.

In 2026, more than 500 MBA vacancies were reported across 14 DAVV programmes after two counselling rounds, although the vacancy subsequently fell to 229 during the next counselling stage.

Yet in the same 2026 admission cycle, nearly 300 candidates competed for only 32 seats in seven selected MBA programmes, and those seats were filled rapidly.

This simultaneous occurrence of vacancy and intense competition is the most important finding of the study.

It means that the market is not rejecting the MBA degree uniformly.

It is increasingly differentiating between MBA offerings.

The evidence therefore supports the following central interpretation:

Indore is experiencing a redistribution of MBA demand rather than the disappearance of MBA demand.

Students who have multiple alternatives can increasingly compare:

Institution → Faculty → Programme → Fees → Academic engagement → Industry exposure → Internship → Skills → Placement → Salary → Career progression.

An MBA institution that cannot demonstrate value across these dimensions faces a greater risk of losing demand.

However, the present public dataset does not justify claiming that every private MBA college in Indore has inadequate faculty, poor attendance, no industrial visits or weak internships. Such statements require verified institution-level evidence.

The stronger research conclusion is therefore that institutional quality and employment outcomes are the next variables that must be connected to the already-established vacancy data.

The 2021–2026 market transformation can consequently be represented as:

Expansion of MBA Capacity

↓

Increasing Competition among Institutions

↓

Persistent Vacancies in Several Programmes

↓

Selective Demand for Certain Programmes/Institutions

↓

Greater Student Comparison of Expected MBA Value

↓

Redistribution of Demand

The evidence therefore leads to a more precise conclusion:

The MBA degree in Indore is not disappearing; the undifferentiated MBA model is under increasing market pressure.

The future competitive advantage of an MBA institution will depend increasingly on measurable evidence of:

Adequate Faculty

 

Academic Engagement

 

Industry Exposure

 

Internship Quality

 

Practical and Analytical Skills

 

Verified Placement

 

Transparent Salary Outcomes

 

Alumni Career Progression

rather than on approved seat capacity alone.

The most important policy shift is consequently from asking:

“How many MBA seats has an institution been approved to offer?”

to asking:

“What measurable educational and employment outcome does each occupied MBA seat produce?”

That is the central transformation revealed by the Indore MBA evidence during the 2021–2026 period.

References

Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV). (2026). CUET-PG 2026: Vacant seats as on 27 July 2026. Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore.

Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV). (2026). Admission and counselling information: CUET-PG 2026 and college-level counselling. Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore.

Directorate of Technical Education, Madhya Pradesh. (2022). MBA admissions and college-level counselling, Madhya Pradesh. Department of Technical Education, Government of Madhya Pradesh.

Free Press Journal. (2025). Indore: Seats vacant in 7 MBA courses at DAVV, now direct admission. Free Press Journal, Indore.

Times of India. (2022). DTE opens college counselling window amid vacant MBA seats in Indore division. The Times of India, Indore.

Times of India. (2024). 375 vacant seats in CUET-PG courses at DAVV. The Times of India, Indore.

Times of India. (2025, June 25). DAVV releases seat allotment list under CUET-PG; MBA finance most sought-after course. The Times of India, Indore.

Times of India. (2025, June 11). Applications less than non-CUET seats. The Times of India, Indore.

Times of India. (2026, July 21). DAVV reports over 500 vacant MBA seats after two counselling rounds. The Times of India, Indore.

Times of India. (2026, August 6). DAVV opens final MBA counselling; 229 seats still vacant. The Times of India, Indore.

Times of India. (2026, August 18). DAVV completes 2026–27 admissions, MBA courses see high demand. The Times of India, Indore.

Additional data source

Directorate of Technical Education, Madhya Pradesh. (2025). Master of Business Administration: Opening and closing ranks, second round, 2025. DTE Madhya Pradesh/MPOnline.

Suggested in-text citations

For the 2026 vacancy evidence:

DAVV reported more than 500 vacant MBA seats after two counselling rounds (Times of India, 2026a).

For the 229-seat subsequent vacancy:

The vacancy subsequently declined to 229 seats during the final counselling stage (Times of India, 2026b).

For the high-demand evidence:

Nearly 300 candidates competed for 32 seats in seven selected MBA programmes, demonstrating substantial programme-level demand (Times of India, 2026c).

For the 2024 programme-level vacancy evidence:

DAVV's 2024 counselling data showed substantial variation in demand across MBA specialisations (Times of India, 2024).

For the 2025 selective-demand evidence:

MBA Financial Administration recorded the highest closing merit position among the major DAVV MBA programmes, followed by Marketing Management, Business Analytics, Human Resources and E-Commerce (Times of India, 2025).

Important methodological note

The references above support the admission, vacancy, counselling and demand analysis. They should not be cited as evidence that every private MBA college in Indore has inadequate faculty, poor attendance, no industrial visits, weak internships or poor placements.

Those claims require separate institution-level evidence such as:

AICTE/DTE faculty records;

university affiliation records;

institutional annual reports;

attendance records;

internship records;

placement reports;

NIRF data where available;

audited institutional disclosures; or

primary survey/RTI data.

Therefore, the strongest academically defensible conclusion is that Indore has an observable MBA capacity-demand mismatch and strong differentiation in student demand, while the precise effect of faculty quality, attendance, industry exposure and placement outcomes remains an institution-level empirical question.