'IIMs should not shun surveys'

The controversy surrounding the Indian Institute of Managements' (IIMs) recent decision to stay away from the surveys that rank business schools has brought Hyderabad-based think-tank, Cosmode Management Research Centre, into focus.

Cosmode is reported to be the pioneer in carrying out the surveys ranking business schools. Of its seven surveys conducted on B-schools, the first two were published in Business Today while the latter five appeared in Businessworld.

Dharni P Sinha, who leads the group of academics conducting the survey, believes that being public institutions, IIMs are accountable towards the student and the parent community, and therefore should not shun participation in such surveys.

He believes that the issue of wrong methodology being used by research organisations, slated to be the reason for non-participation, is just an excuse.

"Every year, we hold workshops where experts participate to discuss various factors related to the survey. Last year, IIM-Ahmedabad also participated in the discussion. If they had an issue with the methodology, they could have reported it to us then. A blanket ban on all kinds of surveys is not the right solution," Sinha points out.

Sinha was earlier the principal of Administrative Staff College of India and a one-time chairman of the All India Board of Management Studies.

"We have been changing our research methodology from time to time. For instance, earlier we used to give 50 per cent weightage to placements. Now, we have reduced it to 30 per cent because of difficulty in verifying the data. Other parameters like faculty, student and industry interface too are being given due importance," he adds.

Sinha says that since IIMs in Indore (I), Lucknow (L) and Kozhikode (K) have not been able to get higher ranks, all the IIMs including the ones in Ahmedabad (A), Calcutta (C) and Bangalore (B), have decided to stay away from this ranking.

In 2003, IIM-A ranked first, IIM-B second, IIM-C third, IIM-L fourth, IIM-K 11th and IIM-I 23rd. In the 2004 survey, while IIM-A and IIM-B retained their positions, IIM-C slipped to the fourth position.

IIMs in Indore, Lucknow and Kozhikode did not participate in the survey in 2004. "This shows that this is a mere attempt to protect the image of the IIM brand," he adds.

Incidentally, the IIMs haven't shunned international surveys by Business Week and Financial Times. Says Sinha, "That's because on a global basis, the IIMs at Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode will anyway not feature in the top 100. So there's no issue of losing the image by getting a low rank."

"Every year, we publish this data in July. This year too we will go ahead with it, with or without the IIMs," he states firmly.

In the case of IIMs, Cosmode will, however, have to make do with the secondary data instead of the primary. "We will provide only the basic details on IIMs and not rank them," he adds.

More than 150 schools and institutes in India have agreed to participate in the 2005 survey.

"There is no issue about Businessworld not publishing the data as we already have a tie-up with them for the next five years," he says, adding, "after all, the general public needs to know how to benchmark the 100-odd institutes participating in the survey."