Why are B-Schools not disclosing placement figures?
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AN average MBA would cost a cool Rs. 5 lakhs and could go up to 14 lakhs at the top-notch schools. As Table 1 shows, an Indian student shells out a figure that is a whopping 22 times over per capita earning to pay for his MBA degree.
That is perhaps the highest, amongst all countries that offer an MBA programme. Considering such a fact, one would at least assume, students would be in a position to make an informed choice about the college. But Indian schools, who must teach students about transparency are depositories of subterfuge and obfuscation of data. And the government, as usual, sleeps.
DATA THAT STAKEHOLDERS NEED
To assess a school, an average student would need to know about the quality of students, quality of faculty, quality of placements and the kid of resources available to him or her. Some would also like to assess the quality of life they could enjoy in the school.
The corporates who recruit from the school would ideally like to be informed about the quality of faculty and quality of their outputs (academic and professional). As media we would like to know both the aspects. Let us take a look what one gets when he or she attempts to study at any higher education institution.
SOURCES
AICTE, mandated by the Government of India, must have been the primary source for data. But it is the worst offender. All useful information that the agency must provide on its website is perpetually under construction. Approvals, application status, accreditation, out put info, college data, all the pages either do not exist or are under construction (see screen shot).
If the government is of little help the institutions fare much less favourably. Website is the primary source in this connected world. Of the 406 colleges we surveyed nearly 29 websites either did not exist or do not open. That is, nearly 11% of colleges have given us no means to contact them.
And these are colleges that have been ranked by at least one agency. One shudders to think about the state of the other 1500 or so.
The information brochure, placement brochure, annual report (if any), mandatory disclosures, and minimum disclosures are primary sources of information for any potential B-School.
MANDATORY DISCLOSURES: A SHAM
| Analysis of Mandatory Disclosures | ||||||||||||||||||
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All the AICTE approved colleges are supposed to upload on their website, crucial data on all parameters under the head of Mandatory Disclosures (MDs). AICTE even threatens to withdraw recogntion if they do not comply.
Of the 250 AICTE approved colleges we surveyed, only about nine of them gave us complete data (see tables for details of the transparent players).
About 16 of them had a file which was either corrupted or does not open.
Rest of the 225 did have a file but the information is almost incomplete with respect to both placement and admission criterion. Will AICTE at least send a notice to these colleges?
Note: Listed alphabetically |
Note: Listed alphabetically |
PLACEMENT DATA
Most students decide on the basis of the quality of placements. Not more than 10 out of 406 colleges were willing to show the list of companies that participated in their placement week and their dates of visit. IIT Roorkee was the most upfront. It gave us the full details. A few others, like Fortune Institute of International Business, New Delhi, IBS, Hyderabad, SCMS, Cochin and Praxis, Kolkata were also quite upfront. SP Jain, a leading school, neither has a mandatory disclosure upfront, nor the promised audited report. S.P JAIN HARVARD |
HOW DO OTHER GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE INSTITUTES FARE?
If the case of Mandatory Disclosure is far from satisfactory, the case of unapproved colleges and recognised universities (both public and private) is much worse. For those that are exempted from AICTE, the Government of India has mandated the publication of Minimum Disclosure. But none of the institutes surveyed (including the IIMs and IITs) do so. Their websites, barring a few exceptions, are pathetic to say the least. We examined the quality of data that is at least available. Here is what we found.
FACULTY DETAILS
None of the institutes provide detailed information on the nature of experience of the faculty. AICTE demands that teaching, industry and research experience are segregated. There are instances where faculty claims over 70 years of total experience.
If this is not obfuscation, then what is it? Today no corporation can decide which school is better for a particular functional area or a special course. No such data exists. Why are colleges shy in informing us the quality of faculty?
It is high time to move beyond just PhDs, as a measure of faculty. AICTE, instead of spending time chasing colleges for PCs, walls, carpeted area and toilets, must focus on getting the qualitative data out.
PUBLICATION RECORD
This is another area of concern. Very few colleges really care about publications. One leading institution informed us they have 21 books published in the last one year, a Tier-4 institute informed us that its faculty has published about 68 papers internationally, both ambitious claims!
Very few colleges distinguish between conference presentation, working papers and refereed publications.
And most IIMs do not provide upfront information on faculty publications. IIM-B in response to an RTI informed us about publication status in 2008-09.
IIM-A and IIM-C are much worse, and IIM-A website indicates nothing for most cases.
And there is no way of examining the quality of publications since they are not categorised nor is the listing available (see IIM A research output scan).
OTHER BIG DATA BLOOPERS
Schools that are part of multidisciplinary universities inform us that the library has 110,000 books, but conveniently forget to inform us that it is for all the 35 departments of the university. The entire hostel block and faculty residences are included, though the management department probably occupies one half of one floor in a single building. Seminars are very easily converted into FDPs and EDPs according to convenience. One-week pleasure trips are paraded as student exchange.
THE GOOD MINORITY
Of course, some schools at least attempt to provide a clear picture. Unfortunately since most colleges provide unverifiable data, the schools that tell the truth get penalised in most rankings - a perverse system of rewards. So, we developed an index of transparency based on the data supplied to us and identified Top 10 colleges and listed them alphabetically along side. May their tribe increase!
When it comes to education, there is no such thing as an information overload. The more the data, the better.
