What's missing in Indian B-Schools

A 9-point charter to get them back on track.

LEARNING Resources: It’s time we moved beyond the number of computers, titles,
electronic journals etc. Their availability is passé. Knowledgeable people who could
identify and suggest resources to students and faculty are the need of the hour. Most
schools have librarians, who are almost clueless to the needs of an information-rich
student body. Very few of them had an e-alert on new arrivals.

Some schools had fancy library management software which refused to work. Some
have supervised library hours making it mandatory to spend time in the library. How
useful is that? Many libraries comprise a few chairs squeezed in and a table for
reading purposes; they are more of reading rooms than libraries. They tend to be
located on the fourth floor while the canteen is on the ground floor. A few good
schools have IT support. For instance, at Nirma the case database and e-resources can
be accessed by students and faculty anywhere, be it in the classrooms or when
students are working on their projects in their rooms at night.

Quality Faculty: We think this is where all institutes need to pay attention and make
the most investment. Experienced faculty with good teaching experience, with a mix
of academically-oriented faculty and visiting faculty with industry experience is a
must to give the student a complete feel, of academics, learning and practical inputs.
Absence of any of these would lead to having an incomplete manager in the market.

Faculty load: In an ideal school faculty teach about 80 hours a year, i.e. less than two
hours a week. The rest of the time they spend on research, consulting and publishing.
We know that it’s too ideal in the Indian context, but barring ISB, no other school
seems to adhere to it. We have no information on elite public funded schools like the
IIMs. But most schools average between 9-12 hours a week and 16-hour teaching
schedules are not uncommon. Many schools also share faculty across programmes, so
the effective load might still be very high. Everything else that the school wants to
achieve is a function of the load. ‘Reduce’, should be the mantra here so that the
faculty spends quality time with the students.

Research & Publishing: Barring the ‘top’ three percent of the schools, none of them
do any serious research, though many of them have a PR page extolling the virtues of
research and publishing. Data shows, terms like peer reviewed, refereed, citation
index, acceptance rate, and independence of editorial process from peer review
process are unheard of in most schools. For many schools establishment of a working
paper series is the be all and end all of research. Some assume that providing some
seed money would do the trick. Both are good but not adequate.
Research has to take into account existing faculty calibre and all schools cannot do
excellent research. Neither can all faculty. Schools should accept this fact and reorient
their strategies, or else research will remain just another PR release. An in-house
journal is a first step in the right direction.

Training: Every school worth its salt, views MDPs as the in thing. But open-ended
training programmes is a very reputation-led sector, and most schools end up just
advertising their wares. There is a readymade market for reasonably well-priced
medium term programmes, especially for the supervisory cadre of executives across
the country. Good schools have capitalised on this market. It is easier to crack, is not
dependent on the vagaries of the market and helps the institute raise its revenue and
profile.

Accreditation: It is slowly becoming an advantage buyer in the MBA market. As the

education becomes high priced, students have started demanding value for money.
And especially with the imminent entry of foreign players, good schools would only
make the cut in the medium term. And a rigourous accreditation process is a good
way to know where one stands. To begin with, a school must go for a NAAC process,
then move on to an international one.

Named Degrees versus specialisation: Many institutes have recently hopped onto
the bandwagon of announcing named MBA/PGDM programmes in addition to their
flagship programme. They come in two flavours; either as verticals like
biotechnology, pharmacy and e-business or functions like HR, Marketing or Finance.
In most cases, the flagship programme continues to offer the same functional
specialisation, and consequently during placement time two programmes from the
same school compete for the placement pie.

Infrastructure: It’s good if you provide a gym and pool to your students. But in our
list of priorities to judge a B-School, that comes much later. And infrastructure
doesn’t mean cement, bricks and concrete. A great building doesn’t become a good
institution. We need spacious, well-connected class rooms, well-anointed learning
resources, good faculty and an ambience that speaks academics.

Foreign Collaborations: It has become the in thing to seek foreign collaborations

without understanding the purpose. The depth of these collaborations matter more
than the numbers. Student exchanges, faculty exchanges, course material and the
curriculum - unless all these are done the right way, collaborations don’t mean
anything. And sooner than later, the demand-led market will see through the foreign
collaborations game.