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85 B-schools find just 84 students for their 9,000 seats

MUMBAI: More than half the 32,000 MBA/MMS seats available under the centralized admission process ( CAP ) in B-schools across the state have gone vacant this year. Admission to management institutes in the state came to an end on Thursday with the counselling round. The final round, conducted at six institutes across the state, saw a weak response. The declining interest in the management degree is a worrying trend for the majority of institutes and the faculty even as the top 10-15 B-schools continue to thrive, say experts.Of the 40,968 seats available in 368 management institutes this year, 32,867 were available under the CAP rounds conducted by the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE). The rest are filled at the institute level under the minority or institute quota. From the seats available under the CAP, 17,478 seats are vacant. Now, the rest will be handed over to institutes which can fill them at their level, said Suresh Yawalkar, deputy director, DTE. The percentage of vacancies may reduce after institute level seats are also taken into account.Seats glut hits students, B-schools“The top 10-15 institutes have managed to fill all their seats, but the rest are struggling with over 50% vacancies this year,” said Rajesh Srivastava, professor at Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, one of the centres for the counselling round. “Around 1,500 students had registered for the counselling round at the centre, but only a few hundreds have actually taken admissions. Students who refused seats have cited poor placement and high fees as two of the prime reasons for their lack of interest,” said Srivastava.“Students choose only top-rung institutes and if they are unable to get a seat there, they either try the next year or give up on the MBA dream. Therefore, institutes have to do better,” said Apoorva Palkar, president of the Association of Indian Management Schools.