The need to reduce classroom time & courses in MBA programs

Business education is at the crossroads, and it is facing numerous challenges. To face those challenges, it is important that business schools do some introspection and re-examine the way they are doing various things.

This article looks at one of the critical issues for business education and MBA programs. MBA programs in different institutions in India have too many courses and too many hours spent in a classroom. Is it really making any difference to business graduates and to various stakeholders, including industry? The answer is no, as it is creating more problems than solutions. Here are five issues with it.

First, there are too many courses, and many of these courses might be really required and make a difference, but it's also true that many of these courses need to be dropped from the program.

Second, there are too many courses, creating too much workload for students. This is repeatedly shared by students from different institutions in interaction with the author over the last 2 and a half decades.

Third, there are too many courses and too much time spent in the classroom, which is creating a problem of compromise on quality. Students being under pressure to complete a lot of assignments and read a lot ultimately end up compromising on quality with at least a few subjects, if not all, and the slide show oral presentation has a poor quality understanding of the subject.

Fourth these too many courses and too much time spent in classroom also is a hindrance in application of the ideas it is one thing to go through a lot throughout the day in different classes and another thing dulhan Daryl application of the concepts discussed in the class in the same day because understanding real application would need more depth and more time spent on the topic at least in the beginning for majority of the students.

Fifth, this is too many courses, too much workload and too many hours spent in the classroom, which creates a lot of stress and mental health issues among students.

Besides these 5 issues, the most significant issue is that too much time is spent in the classroom on various concepts in Altoona, taking assignments and reading before coming to the classroom, and after the classroom, it leaves hardly any time for creativity, thinking or innovation. A Business School graduate without the ability for creativity or innovation is a big failure of business schools when it is a must in the current and future times to come.

It is high time that business schools rethink their programs and reduce the time in the classroom and reduce the number of courses, to add real value to students and create a real impact in the industry and society at large.

(This article is written by Dr. Rajesh K. Pillania, Professor, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon. This is an opinionated article; EPN has nothing to do with this editorial.)