In 2016, less than half the management students who graduated from institutes affiliated to the All India Council for Technical Education got jobs on completing their Master of Business Administration course, the Hindustan Times reported on Saturday.

According to data from the regulatory body – it does not include the Indian Institutes of Management and a few other management colleges – only 47% of the MBA graduates got jobs during placement drives on campus, marking a 4% decline from 2015.

This, the daily added, was a five-year low.

Human resource experts did not blame just the sluggish employment market but also pointed to the quality of the graduates. “The industry is on the lookout for job-ready people, which most MBA grads are not,” Pankaj Bansal, co-founder and CEO of HR company PeopleStrong, was quoted as saying.

AICTE officials said they are considering revising the syllabi in the 3,500 institutes affiliated to them. But experts told the Hindustan Times that it might not help. “The major issue is the quality of these institutes as they are not being able to align with the industry expectations,” said Kamal Singh, who heads a UN organisation looking into quality education.