Keep your chin up: That's what leading business schools have been advising their students at a time when the barrage of bad tidings can be overwhelming. B-schools are now putting that management mantra into practice in their own operations.

Despite a troubled job market which could continue for another year or more, quite a few B-schools are looking at expanding the number of seats by up to 50 per cent and launching new programmes on their campuses.

B-schools maintain that the demand for good students will remain even in a troubled job market and the student pool and programme portfolio need to be expanded. "Besides, when these students pass out in the next two years, the market will be better," said a director from one of the institutes.

A few B-schools have already got the mandate from the All Indian Council for Technical Education -- the body that regulates technical education in the country -- to expand the number of seats.

Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business, which saw compensation packages for its students drop to Rs 13-15 lakh (Rs 11.3-Rs 1.5 million) per annum this year against Rs 18-20 lakh (Rs 1.8 million to Rs 2 million) last year, will expand seats for its one-year management programme to 560 from 440 this year -- a 27 per cent increase.

Mumbai-based Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies also plans to expand its seats by 50 per cent this year from 240 to 360. The institute is combining various streams of its management programmes and bringing it under one umbrella.

Bhubaneshwar-based Xavier Institute of Management believes it has done better than the IIMs in terms of placements and has applied to AICTE for increasing the number of seats from 120 to 180 for its flagship management and rural management programmes. The institute is also launching a new 15-month executive post-graduate diploma in management programme this year with 60 students. 

The Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad is preparing to launch its branch in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The institute has been given land by the state government and will apply to AICTE in December for allotment of seats. "We will set up the campus by 2010," said B S Sahay, director, IMT Ghaziabad. 

At its Ghaziabad centre, the institute will be admitting around 420 students this year against 360 in its current batch. IMT Ghaziabad has so far completed around 80 per cent placement.

The Indian Institutes of Management, which wrapped up a tense placement procedure under heavy secrecy, will have to expand their seats as the other backward class quota implementation has been made mandatory by the ministry of human resource and development.

"I believe much of a similar scenario will prevail during placements next year and we are getting prepared for it.  However, we have to expand the seats since it has been made mandatory," IIM-A Director Samir Barua told Business Standard earlier.