Of Our MBA Graduates

RECENTLY many Nepalese students are found to be interested to study MBA (Masters in Business Administration) and girls are not very far behind to join MBA stream. Lots of female students have graduated from various institutes and are working successfully in various financial institu-tions, educational institu-tions, NGO/INGOs, airlines, hotels and so on. However there are it is said, discrimination during the recruitment as well as in salaries to the female graduates as in other part of the world. As per a finding 86 per cent of MBA graduates were male while girls comprises only 14 per cent. This is not only in Nepal, but even in the reputed institutes in most parts of the world, males are getting better preferences. The males are paid upto $110,000 per year whereas no any female graduate figures in the list. The reason may be because of their image of being unable to allocate sufficient time, working late hours and other biological factors, which constrain them of giving the best of their talent and time since the executive level jobs demand greater amount of time. There had been cases when a CEO position was offered to a woman, was gently turned down because of her fear of not being able to give enough time for the family. Going by these facts, perhaps big companies are little more hesitant to recruit women executives in the highest positions.

As per the same finding, 42 per cent of the graduates had taken Finance as the specialised area closely followed by marking with 35 per cent. "In the country like Nepal where new financial structures are being built, this is a healthy trend" was the view of the team leader of the Rural Finance Nepal (RUFIN) project of GTZ. Some of the major industrialists of Nepal believe that marketing should be given more preference, where the economy of the country is in the developing stage.

In case of relevancy of acquired knowledge in MBA, 15 per cent of them were found to feel that the course was extremely relevant, 20 per cent of them answered as very relevant, 30 per cent felt that it is fairly relevant, and remaining felt that it was worthless as they could have done without the MBA degree. So the existing business schools should develop the curriculum as per the future practicability of the course itself for its validity.

One of the significant characteristics of MBA graduates was the short time taken to accommodate in the job immediately after the graduation. About 44 per cent of the respondents got the job within a month after holding graduation certificates, 21 per cent were employed within three months, 24 per cent with 6 months, 8 per cent within a year and only three per cent got a related job after more than a year. Those respondents who were employed after a year or so were actually seeking the opportunity for the higher studies abroad hence were not trying to accommodate in the relevant job.

The average salary range of MBA graduates was found to be between Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 16,000. About 14 per cent were earning more than Rs. 16000 and 29 per cent were earning at the range of Rs. 8000- Rs.10,000. As per the analysis there is not any relationship between the area of specialisation and salary. However there is a strong relationship between salary and the work experience.

One other factor also plays a very big role in blocking the emergence and upliftment of Nepalese MBA professionals. The bigger commercial houses, big hotels tend to hire Indian professionals most. To overcome this disadvantage Nepalese educationists must come forward to create institutions as per the standard of foreign companies. Here, a message that compels us to think before hiring Indian professionals is that, big Indian companies for the last few years hadn’t hired any MBA graduates who had completed their graduation from the foreign countries. So, the government should think to work together in order to minimise the import of manpower from beyond the national boundaries. Foreigners are getting the opportunities to work in their respective field whereas Nepalese MBA holders are engaging themselves with some kind of NGOs and working in other fields in order to make their livelihood. This kind of migration from the specialised field is not a good sign of a healthy economy. It’s a part of the problem which should be solved sooner or later.

(This article is jointly prepared by MBA graduates of Kathmandu University Bijeeta Shakya, Sanjaya Shrestha and Shushobhit Shrestha as part of their academic research.)