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.