The Outlook-C fore Business School survey, which has emerged as one of the most respected ones in India, came up with a few startling and interesting conclusions this year.

The first one was that although the three renowned IIMs (A,B,and C; Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta) were still way ahead of the other B-Schools, a few private institutes were catching up fast.

For example, IIM-A (Ahmedabad), which was ranked first of all the colleges in 2006 and 2007, scoring percentage remained constant at around 86 per cent in both the years. In comparison, XLRI (Jamsehdpur-based), the top-most private institute, improved its percentage from 53 to 62 per cent in the same period.

More importantly, a few private schools were way ahead of even the IIMs in critical areas like research, campus infrastructure and innovative learning. IMT (Ghaziabad) and Narsee Monjee (Mumbai) have made it mandatory for their faculty members to author research papers and, hence, the output of these institutes has improved considerably.

IBS (which has 19 privately-run campuses across India) has maintained its momentum to develop case studies. It is one of the largest contributors to the European case clearing house, and its cases are used by global publishers like McGraw Hill, John Wiley, Prentice Hall, and Oxford University Press. T A Pai Management Institute (Manipal, Karnataka), which took the initiative in converting summer internships into output-based case development, has formalised over 600 cases in the past five years.

IIMM (Mumbai), KIIT Bhubneshwar, SCMS Cochin, IBS Hyderabad, and Alliance have constructed world-class campuses. T A Pai is in the process of constructing a new campus of over four lakh sq ft built up area for which it has acquired 40 acres in Manipal. XIMB is all set to start construction of new campus in 100 acres in Bhubaneshwar. A few B-Schools like IMT Ghaziabad, XLRI, SP Jain (Mumbai) have even established campuses abroad. IMT's Dubai campus has faculty from North America and Europe. Punjab College of Technical Education in Ludhiana has linkages with B-Schools in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka [Images] UK and several African countries. The institute has also been allocated 60 acres to set up a campus in Tanzania.

Still, there are many problem areas for all the Indian B-Schools. Spawning entrepreneurship is among the weakest chink in their armours. Apart from a handful of schools, not one is focussing on it. Given the fact that India's growing economy needs more entrepreneurs, this is a glaring lacunae in our management education system. Especially when one compares it to the US system, where leadership is among the primary focus in leading management schools.

Another challenge for B-Schools perhaps is to catch up with the pace of changes in the professional world. As a professor in one of the top-rated marketing faculty says, "The faculty in most of B-Schools is getting outdated. It's a challenge to motivate and enable them to update themselves. We should have specialist-faculty, but due to variety of reasons like heavy teaching load they turn out to be generalists like primary school teachers." Unfortunately faculty development is not a top priority in most B-Schools. In our survey, we found that spends on faculty development was less than five per cent of revenues in more than 80 per cent of the B-Schools.

ABOUT THE SURVEY METHODOLOGY

The unique feature of Outlook-C fore survey is that it is based primarily on objective data and we ensure that weightage to perceptual data never exceeds 25 per cent. The prime objective of ranking is to elevate the standard of business education in the country. The purpose of ranking is not to perpetuate brand myth but to evaluate the actual performance of B-Schools against different parameters. We recognise the leadership role B-Schools can play in creating new knowledge and skills. So we give substantial weightage to the research output of an institute.

The methodology of the survey is finalised after taking inputs from all relevant stakeholders like recruiters, students and faculty. This year broad parameters like intellectual capital, infrastructure, industry interface, international linkages and recruiters satisfaction etc and additional 54 sub parameters were also used to assess a B-School.

For the purpose of ranking, B-Schools were segmented into four broad categories that is government/public-sector-funded autonomous institutes, private, sectoral (dedicated to certain subjects only) and university departments (offering business courses). The B-Schools that offered only one-year programmes were not included in the survey. The survey was open to all B-Schools in India. In all 216 B-Schools participated in the survey.

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~Top 10 University Departments Offering Business Degrees
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Reprinted with kind permission from: Outlook