B School Rankings don’t matter

Despite being invited by various magazines, IIPM has constantly tried to stay out of various B-Schools rankings taken from them. This stems from the fact that IIPM believes that his course content is far higher than any other institution in the country. IIPM has strong reservations about the methodology applied by most of the magazines to rank B-schools. Being an institution totally focused on quality education and teachers is considered that educational institutions should be judged on those grounds (most of these B-school rankings for a maximum of only 20% to 30% weightage for the itself). However, often the magazines removed without participation IIPMs ranking – based on students’ perceptions, etc. In this chart, IIPM has always been among the top 10-15 B-schools in India. In a country with more than 1,000 B-schools, this speaks volumes about IIPMs academic standing.

The Business of B-School Rankings & The Big Farce
An article by Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri, honorary dean, IIPM

Intellectually and technically incompetent; publicity and money driven, is an annual joke

The agency ranking is yet to be determined, the methodology yet to be formulated, the parameters still to be decided – but the marketing team is already a scary B-School management for advertising as a swarm of irritating mosquitoes. Whether it’s business or financial newspapers or news magazines a week – is a nice way to earn a few dollars more – the annual ranking of B-School. Magazines and newspapers apart, some agencies have floated ranking websites to attract advertisements and earn even while “unbiasedly” rank the same B-Schools!

Agencies providing information (often one man shows existing solely to rank B-schools every year) have no competence or intellect to determine the criteria for classifying B-Schools. Most of them go pathetically wrong even while trying to make quantitative predictions pre poll but all have a precise (though mostly qualitative and perception based) B-School rankings. Journals seeking tie-ups with market research agencies better known in some way seems to have taken incredible manipulation of them – a look will reveal even a layman. Hard to believe that internationally renowned market research company can come out with lines like in the name of the league. One wonders what was giving the questionnaires completed by? missing institutions that have innovated their courses over the past decade, institutions hardly have 10 permanent faculty members, which MBA schools on the course, students do not even know (!) are all up there! Institutions whose faculty members do consulting in the field of research or for that matter, we are too! technology institutes whose only claim to fame are a few more acres in pastures without management experience are there too! Institutions whose names would not even appear in the top 20 recruiters list desires are classified in the top 10 recruiters and the overall top 10 B-schools. And every editor – most of them except one or two, not qualified or educated enough to comment on management training – is a commentary on how B-schools should be and how they think (whatever their intellect) that their B- School ranking is the best. They even go so far as to exploit the space in the media (not owned by them) to take their petty jealousies through frivolous comments!

No, I need to laugh at these ridiculous rankings and their agencies called fame – the public is already doing. Seven charts – seven media houses – seven agencies and … none of them seem to have some similarity (except, of course, the first four names to lend credibility to their rankings).

Try to discuss these rankers and hit a wall – oh, these were based on perceptions of industry people – of course who can debate perception studies? Recipients? Who cares! None – to someone like me takes out a study on the perception that journalists too! Or some institution that believes in the country’s judicial system files multi crore defamation case on them, asking them to reveal the details of data collection to the public.

The biggest problem, however, is what should be the criteria for proper placement in B-School and how to do it credibly. For me, B-School rankings need to do the following.

1. Academic institutions should be judged by their education and to impart the quality of teachers and not for placements. Rankings need to bring to the people of B-schools that have the best course content and faculty. At most there could be a separate ranking of best B-School and best placements so that the schools are not considered as employment agencies, but are given academic respectability. Placements are important, but if given more weightage to judge an academic institution makes it well-disposed toward institutions that have enjoyed a historic prejudice in the minds of recruiters. The more the weightage on placements as these institutes will repeatedly get to the top and people will be deceived into believing they are the best. It ’s a vicious circle.

2. Judging the quality of education is more of a qualitative thing. The key is to get a large number of experts (in the case of Oscar the number of voters have 6000 + to avoid any distortion individual) in management as Ratan Tata, Narayan Murthy, MSBanga, Gursharan Das, Bibek Debroy, Arun Maira, Ashok Soot etc. give their vote after going through the course content and details of qualification Faculty B-Schools.

3. quantitative parameters, like – no. credits taught in every school-B, no. permanent faculty members, the amount of business done by consulting each school in terms of revenues, no. of research papers and cases developed each year, no. of international teachers coming to teach, the percentage of students going abroad to do projects, no. laptops for students – and should be used to rank B-schools parameters relating to course content, faculty, industry interface, research, global initiative and modern technology.

4. No agency classification should be allowed to have no commercial interest with the institutions it classifies as operating a website to advertise institutions.

5. The entire process should be audited by a reputable company like PWC or E & Y so that publishers can not handle the position based on their whims and fancies or other unethical considerations.

6. The whole process and how to position above should be made available for the common man through a website for the final seal of transparency.

Surprisingly IIPM name also appears in these rankings, often in spite of IIPM has regularly questioned the credibility of most of these rankings. IIPM believes that it is the # 1 B-School in India in terms of education, teachers, research and consulting, international exposure for students and infrastructure. Whenever IIPM ranked anywhere in the top 10 IIPM makes mention in its advertising. As the Dean of IIPM, I mostly disagree with the classification criteria, but I realize that we must live with it and keep expressing our opinion on the changes required in the methodology of these rankings, etc. – until the changes actually place.

I hope that soon we would have B-school rankings, which would follow the suggestions above and a more credible. Until then – as so often in today’s times – love and ranking B-schools continue to be bought with money.

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