'High offers are not the only benchmark'

, Director, Foundation for Organisational Research and Education (FORE) believes that the increasing number of business schools in India is not as much a cause of worry as the degrading quality of teachers and students are.

FORE is a center of excellence in Management Education, Research, Training and Consultancy. On the eve of the institute's Fourteenth convocation, the Director talked to Business Standard about the competition faced by management schools.

With over 1500 B-schools in India, employability has become a big question. How do you propose to keep up the quality?

This is a fallout of regulation. But it is not a problem. With our growing population we need such a set up. The problem is to ensure quality. Quality of both students as well as teachers is important. Today the challenges are different.

Employability is a matter of continuous learning. Anybody who ceases to be receptive and does not update himself no longer stays employable. We at Fore constantly update our syllabus and keep on adding value to it.

How do you bring the best students in your fray when many aspiring MBA candidates are opting for foreign universities?

The students who come to our institute are intelligent and competitive. The entrance ensures we get a good lot of students. Moreover we believe in moulding our students to become the best.

It is not a problem if a student opts for a foreign institution but the point is whether these universities are of top quality or not. Many of the foreign universities pick up Indian students because they face the problem of funds. In that case it's wrong.

Do you agree with foreign universities setting up their campuses in India?

Well, that is an issue the government is handling on its own, but these campuses should not be set up on the cost of top institutes like the Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institutes of Technology.

It could be in a collaborative arrangement, that does not affect our system. We can take the best from them but not let our education system go in their hands. A time may come when they will handle our education system. It would mean loss of revenue as well as brain drain.

Placements of some B-schools have seen sky-rocketing salaries. How do you face such competition?

It is a matter to be looked into that such placements only happen if the student already has a considerable work experience. We usually miss out on that.

Moreover, what is more important is that the average placement with maximum of students be good rather than just few being extremely well paid.