SIX Things that should be checked before you join a B School

SIX Things that should be checked before you join a B School

India is the country with one of the larger number of youth population who are highly motivated towards their future and well set on achieving their ambitions. Is our country’s education system able to meet the needs of our younger generation? Although there were as many as 487 B-schools in the country offering post-graduate degrees or diplomas in business management approved by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) on April 1, 1998, no more than 50 make it to the serious recruiter's list. That's not surprising considering the AICTE's approval process: it only requires a physical inspection of the class-rooms and the library -- none of which is a surrogate for standards. The MBA aspirants and their parents are facing a big dilemma at this stage regarding the selection of Business School for higher education and they are easily misled by these B mushrooming B Schools. Now at this stage the MBA aspirants and their parents are needed to make a research on the following things before joining a Business School.

THE FACULTY PROFILE

The competency factor which leads to the success of any B Schools is the faculty. Faculty with adequate exposure to academia and industry will always ad on to the success factor. Irrespective of that the experience, domain knowledge, corporate expertise etc: will help to bring valuable insights to the students which will help to make them good entrepreneurs. Also the number of permanent faculty in a B School should also be taken in to account. No amount of infrastructure can make up for the absence of good instructors. Of course, arriving at a measure of teacher competence is not simple. Sure, qualifications count; for instance, the top-rated schools have a higher proportion of Ph.ds in their faculty. Given the low student-to-instructor ratio at these institutes, that is a creditable achievement. But unlike American B-school dons, who take on corporate consulting assignments regularly, few professors in the Indian B-schools do so. Also experienced faculty can accelerate the placement process with more number of recruiters.

THE RECRUITER PREFERENCES

Over time, the best B-schools have managed to carve out successful niches for themselves. Indeed, the emergence of the trend of global placements does make life difficult for companies used to having their pick of MBAs from the best schools. The quality of the output from the school, but also on their experience while recruiting from the school, and the ability of the school to manage recruiter expectations. However, most companies seem to display an overall numerical bias towards the established B-schools, the reason could be a desire to maintain cultural homogeneity: a company most of whose managers belong to one particular school prefers to remain brand-loyal. Their recruitment from other schools is, typically, few and far between, influenced primarily by the quality of individual students. So its advisable for the candidates looking for admission in a particular B School to have an interactive session with some of the alumni to have a clear idea about the recruiters, their mode of selection apart from depending heavily on the placement brochures of B Schools.

THE BRAND IMAGE

The Reputation and brand image of the B Schools can bring upon a big leverage in the number of companies visiting the campus for placements. Obviously, the competitive position of a B-school hinges on the quality of its teaching and the impression of recruiters. So, it would be logical to assume correlations between the number of companies recruiting from a B-school and the number of students seeking admission to that school, and its overall rank.

THE DIRECTOR PREFERENCES

A comparison of the ratings attributed by the B-school directors (to schools other than their own) and recruiters indicates a slight dissonance. The vision of the management of B schools also adds on to the outcome. Many of the old B schools like K.J. Sommaya have good name among the corporate, but it does less promotion to attract the aspirant candidates and their parents. Now B schools are mushrooming round all the nukes and corner of the country, so most of the B Schools which are of low quality are least bothered about the selection process and they concentrates more on making more money by giving seats through donation. So the aspirant students and parents should keep an eye on such institutes which doesn’t add much value to the students or help them in climbing up the corporate ladder.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE ELEMENTS

As long as a business school has the money (or the ability to raise it), building the brick-and-mortar semblance of a good b-school isn't a problem however, academic infrastructure scores decrease far more linearly than physical infrastructure scores. Though there are two bodies National Board of Accreditation (NBA) of the AICTE or the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) of UGC, which is coming out with a formal system of accreditation, but there are very few institutes or programs, which have been accredited. The students who are planning to go for MBA and their guardians who spend a lot of money on their education are not aware of the grading and their significance. The regulatory authorities like AICTE and UGC should play a much bigger role in this respect and it is not only approving the new programs and the institutes but also keeping a check on these institutes as part of the social responsibility which should be on their cards. Unless and until something is done to check the mushrooming B-Schools and grade the existing B-schools, media surveys conducted by various organizations or Business magazines are going to remain among the best sources of information.

THE CURRICULUM

Course contents offered plays an active role in the curriculum. The professors, the alumni, and the alumni-turned-recruiters -- the last two would actually know best just how useful their degrees have been since entering the portals of business -- should be able to answer that. There is an almost-total correlation between the curriculum scores ascribed by these stakeholders to their respective schools, and the overall ranks. Very few B-schools, however, actively work on their curriculum.