FOREWORD
Breaking Through The Clutter
Some results of the BW B-school survey are obvious, some are surprising
15 May 2009
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| MARCHING AHEAD: IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta and XLRI, Jamshedpur, have retained their leading positions |
Four B-schools from India’s financial capital Mumbai have muscled their way into the Top 10 of the BW B-school survey (conducted by Synovate India) this year. That is double the number of slots Mumbai-based schools occupied in the last survey of 2007. But they are yet to make a mark right at the pinnacle where, in the absence of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, (which chose not to participate in the survey), the top three B-schools held on to their ranks of the 2007 survey. IIM Ahmedabad continues to be the most preferred B-school in India, ahead of IIM Calcutta by a wide margin. Jamshedpur-based Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) remains at No. 3.
The real surprises, however, lie beyond the top three. IIM Lucknow, which is the only IIM to set up a branch (in Greater Noida), has moved up three places from No. 7 in 2007 ranking to No. 4, so has the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai, which moved to No. 5 from No. 8. IIM Indore has done even better, climbing four spots to No. 6. The only institute that has slipped and yet remained in the Top 10 is the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi, which has gone down to No. 7.
Learning Experience
There are just two new entrants in the Top 10 this year. Mumbai’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), which was ranked 12th in the 2007 survey, has climbed to No. 10. And Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) — which did not participate in the 2007 survey — has occupied the No. 8 slot. Even though the Top 2 have pretty much swept the ‘living experience’ charts, it is institutes such as the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management at IIT Bombay, Symbiosis in Pune and the Department of Management Studies at IIT Delhi that have got the maximum score (130) on living experience.
Interestingly, seven of the overall Top 10 have failed to find a place among the Top 10 in living experience with Mumbai’s NMIMS at the lowest (No. 46) and FMS at No. 43. On learning experience, NMIMS has secured the No. 1 slot while IIM Ahmedabad is ranked on par with IIM Lucknow at No. 2. The surprise element is in the three of the overall Top 10 — FMS, SP Jain Institute of Management & Research and JBIMS — which have been ranked very low at 37, 28 and 36, respectively on learning experience.
In placement experience, IIM Calcutta has outscored IIM Ahmedabad for the No. 1 position, while Mumbai’s NITIE takes the third spot. The worst ranked of the Top 10 is Mumbai’s NMIMS at 24. The real reason why no college has been able to trounce IIM Ahmedabad is that nobody has been as consistent. Despite ranking at the top in only two of the five parameters, IIM Ahmedabad remains the overall leader by a wide margin because its chief rivals have swung wildly on other parameters. IIM Calcutta has been ranked No. 20 and No. 7 in return on investment and learning experience, respectively, while XLRI is at No. 13, 11 and 6 on living, learning experience and placement experience.
IIM Ahmedabad’s lowest rank is No. 28 on international exposure. The survey has clearly outlined the dissatisfaction with several management schools over international exposure. IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow and Mumbai’s NMIMS top the chart here. The worst rank, among the overall Top 10, though has gone to Mumbai’s JBIMS: it has been ranked No. 59.
Interesting Mix
Behind these rankings lie some interesting nuggets. The profile of students going for an MBA programme presents an interesting picture of the blend in the classrooms even though engineering graduates continue to dominate most B-school classes. Eighty two per cent of students at the Top 10 schools are engineering graduates, 6 per cent commerce and 5 per cent science graduates. In comparison, schools ranked 11-20 have barely 59 per cent engineering graduates, while 14 per cent are commerce and 8 per cent are science graduates.
As a secular trend, students with work experience are enrolling into B-schools. While fresh graduates constituted as much as 80 per cent of the batches up to the mid-1990s, today students with no work experience make up just 35 per cent of the Top 10 institutes. Those with two-three years of experience constitute as much as 44 per cent of the batches. As a consequence, 21 to 25-year-olds account for 77 per cent of the classes of the Top 10 B-schools. Gender equality, however, is yet to make a headway in the corridors of these hallowed buildings with males still grabbing 83 per cent of the seats in the Top 10 colleges.
We hope that these broad findings and many more specific upshots in the B-schools ranking tables that follow will assist you in breaking through the clutter as you go on the hunt for your preferred management institute.
bweditor at abp dot in
(Businessworld Issue Dated 19-25 May 2009)
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