Business Schools replacing ‘CTC’ with ‘MEP’ as per Indian Placement Reporting Standards

Excerpt from Daily Bhaskar

Don’t be surprised if you read about the students of top B-schools offered higher ‘MEP’ rather than CTC during the placement processes. In a major update, some of the top B-Schools in the country including Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, (IIM-A) have agreed to report Maximum Earning Potential (MEP) rather than the Cost to Company (CTC), which is offered by recruiters to the students at the time of placements.
IIM-A organized a conference on Placement Reporting Standards on Saturday, wherein 170 B-schools from across the country were invited to ideate, suggest, object and discuss the various aspects of standardising the placement reports.
Out of the total 170 B-schools, 33 attended the conference, where recruiters, media and ranking agencies, banks offering loans to the students were also present. There were four recruiters, and seven media and ranking agencies present at the conference. Stating that placements are a key part of B-school education, IIM-A director, Samir Barua said, “Standardisation of the placement reports will ensure their transparency, and is aimed towards reducing misreporting of placement information in the future. I am sure the B-schools that have attended the conclave, will agree to follow the standardised format of placement reports. This will help the students in deciding which B-school they intend to be part of, in order to carve their future.”
IIM-A professor Saral Mukherjee, chairperson of placements, was part of the drafting team. The moderator for the entire conclave professor TV Rao said, “We have decided July 31 as the deadline for all B-schools to accept or reject the modified draft on standardization of placement reports. This would also be mailed to the institutes that were unable to attend the conclave. Once the standards are accepted, it will help institutions open up for auditing, however, auditing will have to be done by an outside agency, which we have yet to ponder upon.”
Rao added, “Outside agencies auditing institution-based placements might be a difficult task, as we might have to train these auditors before they begin the work. Either way, it is a good beginning and IIM-A is sure of going ahead with this.”
Mukherjee informed that each clause of the draft was discussed by all the participants and changes were made to the draft. The participants agreed to replace the concept of CTC with that of Maximum Earning Potential (MEP). Reporting the total guaranteed cash components and MEP separately will provide sufficient meaningful information.
It was also decided that internship data would be further segregated based on whether internships were secured through the institute or otherwise. The sectoral information was further expanded to include sectors like travel & tourism. It was also agreed upon by participants that verification by an external auditor would be the appropriate method to lend credibility to this initiative. IIM-A aims to release its final placement report according to the proposed standards this year.

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