Four years after it launched its business school — Indus World School of Business at Greater Noida — MBA test preparatory institute Career Launcher has suspended its operations. Pondicherry Central University, to which the B-school was affiliated, has scrapped its affiliation. If re-affiliation to the B-school does not come through, Career Launcher will not be able to run its management programme.
Career Launcher had established the B-school in 2008 with an investment of around Rs 70 crore. “Our management programme has been discontinued for the time being. Affiliation of 35 colleges have been cancelled. We are awaiting a re-affiliation. We are not admitting students at present,” said R Srinivasan, Director, Indus World School of Business (IWSB).
The institute has not admitted a new batch of students this year. The batch of 2011 with 60 students will graduate in 2013. Annual fee for the programme is Rs 6.25 lakh.
The test preparatory institute, however, said it continued to hold other programme that it had launched in association with a few of the industrial, government and development bodies like TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), Sife (Students In Free Enterprise) and NEN (National Entrepreneurship Network).
The institute said it was working on some international partnerships and may look at a re-launch.
Earlier this year, another B-school, the Mumbai Business School shut shop after it did not get sufficient students.
The B-school promoted by A Mahendran, managing director, Godrej Consumer Product Limited (GCPL), shut shop after three years of operation. The promoters are now planning to bring in a new school for brand development.
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According to Shankar S Mantha, chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), this year so far, around 110 institutes have sought permission to shut shop. Of these, 60 are B-schools.
In the past two years, 95 B-schools have closed. Industry experts expect more institutions to down shutters due to lack of students and the inability of colleges to equip students with knowledge to meet the requirements of corporate India. According to Crisil Research, the average occupancy rate declined in 2011-12 to around 67 per cent for engineering colleges and to about 65 per cent for B-schools.