B-schools fail

The findings of the latest survey of business schools, commissioned by the All India Management Association, are disturbing. Of the thousand-odd schools that have official recognition, only a quarter responded to the survey questionnaire. Of these, some 40 per cent (about 100) have been classified in the "C" or "C+" category.

What this means becomes clear from the data: tiny faculty sizes of half a dozen or less, few if any with doctoral degrees, a scarcity of basic facilities like computers, and students who pass out to command salaries that graduates with a decent first degree would find unappealing.

This is a deplorable state of affairs, because the message is that India probably has barely 100 passable business schools, of which only a fifth or so might be able to command the "excellence" tag and enjoy a premium in the job market.

Surveys can be faulty. But the message from this and other similar surveys is clear. The first lesson to be drawn is that the official certification process, involving the All India Council for Technical Education (which also oversees architecture courses, for instance) is seriously flawed.

The Council should introduce a review process by which business schools that are subjected to surprise checks and fail to pass muster will have their certification withdrawn.

Some years ago, the U R Rao Committee (whose report is still not public) reportedly discovered the existence of B-schools that barely had a postal address. That means the AICTE's certification process should itself be subjected to audit.

Several other things too are wrong. Business management courses populated by students who have jumped in straight after their first university degree, are a bad idea.

B-school students need some understanding of the real world of business before they can hope to gain from a management education""which is not like studying theoretical physics but more in the nature of vocational education.

Accountancy, for instance, requires real work to be done in an accounting firm before you get a chartered accountant's status""so why is the same not required of B-schools? Most reputed B-schools in other countries require a minimum work experience; it is time this was introduced in India""and mandated by the AICTE.

The other point to be driven home is that you do not need an MBA to do most entry-level jobs in companies; a good economics or commerce degree would ordinarily suffice, especially if buttressed by short diploma courses in sales or accounting or any other such discipline.

In that sense, the proliferation of below-par B-schools points to the failures of India's broader university system to turn out good graduates who can undertake entry-level jobs after just one degree. It also points to excessive fascination in the job market for people with an MBA tag.

It is far from clear that the AICTE will rise to the challenge posed by the AIMA survey's findings. It is therefore important that the market be so developed that it is able to separate the wheat from the chaff""and the market comprises fee-paying students who otherwise get duped and discover it too late.

This can only be done through the widest possible publicity being given to private rankings, such as that done by AIMA (and published in Indian Management, a sister publication of this newspaper) and by several leading publications.

That is all the more reason why the leading institutes of management should review their decision last year to not take part in such surveys.