Management education is more than a hundred years old in the world. In India it took wing in the late 1950s and the first IIMs at Ahmedabad and Calcutta were established under mentorship with the Harvard Business School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today we have 11 IIMs. Despite more than 50 years of existence and heavy support from government and their foreign partners, the IIMs have only now begun to find their names among the top 100 b-schools of the world. There could be many valid reasons for their exclusion, but the fact is that they are not on the high table. However, admissions to IIMs, especially to Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta is the most difficult in the world. They probably have the highest applications to admission ratio in the world.

Today there are almost 3,000 b-schools in the country, out of which about 2,500 are approved by AICTE and remaining (ranging from the prestigious ISB to the dubious IIPM) conduct unapproved programmes. All these Institutes produce about 200,000 management graduates per year.

Outside the IIMs, very few b-schools attract really good students, the most well known being the Indian School of Business (ISB), XLRI Jamshedpur, FMS Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, the IITs, NITIE Mumbai, IIFT Delhi, NMIMS Mumbai, KJ Somaiya, IMI Delhi, IMT Ghaziabad, TAPMI Manipal and perhaps some more.

It is common knowledge that quality standards of education differ significantly among Indian b-schools. If you looked beyond the IIMs and a few other institutes mentioned above, there is strong need for quality improvement in the more than 2,000 b-schools before they can come upto a reasonably acceptable level. Even among the different IIMs and the next level of b-schools, there is a wide quality gap. Shortage of qualified faculty, quality of curriculum and shortcuts for course completion are some of the ailments. Thanks to the government regulators, the availability and quality of infrastructure has considerably improved in the last few years.

As b-school Deans and Directors, we frequently discuss among each other as to why the Government supports only the IIMs. Can the 3,000 MBAs produced by the IIMs fulfill India’s aspirations of being a fully developed country in the next 20 years or so? Why is it that there isn’t enough government or sectoral support to improve the standards of teaching (and we are not talking about research, which is much worse) in the next level of b-schools?

Stray efforts have been made by some of the IIMs, the regulators and others to train the faculty of other b-schools through long and short term faculty development programmes and quality improvement programmes. However this has not really helped much, as the number of faculty that such ‘expensive’ and long term programmes at IIMs can accommodate has been limited. Though the AICTE provides some limited grants to b-schools for this purpose, most institutes are just unaware of it or find it too cumbersome and feel uncertain about the benefits of applying for these grants. Secondly, the trained faculty does not pass on the learning gained to their colleagues. The reading material, case studies, simulation games, videos, exercises and teaching methodology etc remain confined to a few. The problem gets compounded when faculty members with family commitments feel reluctant to be away for long periods for such faculty development programmes. B-schools too feel reluctant to let their faculty go to such training sessions as replacement faculty is not available in most cases, compounded by the acute faculty shortage faced by most institutes.

Multi-level Diffusion

The author has been proposing a ‘multi-level diffusion model’ of mentoring Indian b-schools. I have suggested that each mature IIM should mentor the next level of 5 b-schools in their region. Non-IIM b-schools can send their faculty to the IIMs for a period of 2-10 weeks. The faculty will attend classes, may take some classes along with IIM faculty, interact with them and understand their practices and imbibe their teaching methodology and pedagogy. The salary of this faculty will continue to be paid by his/her mother institute. The IIMs may provide family guest accommodation to these trainees which will also be paid for by the source Institute along with all travel and local expenses. Similarly, the IIMs can send one or two faculty members to the interested / attached institute for a period of 2-10 weeks; the IIM faculty may teach a course or part of a course and interact and mentor local faculty in teaching methodology, case method, pedagogy, writing of research papers etc. The salary of the visiting IIM faculty will be paid by the local Institute and it will also make arrangements for lodging, boarding, travel and local transport. So the IIMs will have no financial obligation. In turn this non-IIM institute will mentor 5 institutes of next level and so on.

The advantage of this model is that there is no financial burden on host institutes or the IIMs and the arrangement is at their convenience. The learning is informal and widespread and can be diffused easily. It is expected that by this method at least 500 b-schools can improve their quality of teaching and research and stand a chance to compete in international rankings.

Cooperative localized learning

Local level Faculty Development Programmes at state capital level can be organized for a group of b-schools by a better group of b-schools having reputed and experienced faculty. This can be facilitated by local management associations, organizations like AIMA and its local management associations or chapters, AIMS and other regional and national forums of management schools. The local programmes will have the advantage of faculty not having to leave their family for long periods and lower costs. The costs for these programmes can be shared by the beneficiary b-schools.

The AICTE or its yet to be born avatar ‘National Commission for Higher Education and Research’ (NCHER) may give credit to institutes which mentor other institutes, and if possible fund these programmes.

I feel that such models can improve the quality of management education across a large number of b-schools in the next five years and improve the standing of Indian b-schools on a world stage.

Contributed By: Dr Suresh Ghai is the Director of Mumbai-based KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research and the immediate past President of the Bombay Management Association. He has been educated at IIT Roorkee, IIM Ahmedabad and Panjab University and has spent 28 years in the industry followed by 13 years as a management educator. The views expressed here are his own.

With the economy still in the doldrums, this could be a great time to take a full-time MBA. Why slog your guts out working thanklessly in an understaffed department when you could take a year or two out to study and improve your career prospects, then when people are hiring again jump back into the job market with a spring in your step and a solid business qualification under your belt?

Anybody who is thinking along these lines is sure to be salivating after looking at the Financial Times’ latest MBA rankings, which came out last month. At the top end, salaries of $150,000-plus and increases in pay of 130% for successful MBA graduates are not uncommon. But just how accurate are such MBA rankings, and how useful are they for those trying to choose an MBA?

The FT’s ranking is not the only one, of course. The other three main lists are compiled by the Economist, Business Week and Forbes. The last two are big in America – and concentrate on US schools – while most would-be students in Europe and beyond take the FT’s and the Economist’s more seriously.

However, anybody hoping to take a casual glance at the rankings and get a clear idea of how the world’s MBAs compare is likely to end up confused. In its new ranking, the FT says that London Business School and Wharton are the joint best schools. For the Economist, these two come in 19th and eighth respectively. It reckons that the three best schools are Chicago Booth, Tuck at Dartmouth College and Haas at the University of California – which are 11th, 18th and 25th in the FT. French school Insead is fourth in the FT and 23rd in the Economist, while further down, Chinese school CEIBS is 100th in the Economist, but 17th in the FT.

The lists can also be volatile, especially for smaller schools: in the Economist, Belgian school Vlerick fell from 10th one year to 47th the next, while in the new FT ranking the same school went up 32 places (to 55th). Then there is the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedebad, which has debuted the FT ranking at number 11. It has a salary increase of 152%, making it third on that metric, while its alumni’s average salary is $174,440, putting it second globally behind Stanford. Why does this happen, and what does it all mean?

The anomalies and oddities are results of the methodologies used to compile the lists (see box opposite). Talk to academics, students and alumni and you hear all sorts of criticisms of the ways they are compiled. Some say that the number of female faculty members, measured by the FT, or the number with PhDs, measured by the Economist, is irrelevant. Others think that comparing small specialist schools to giants such as Harvard, where 1,800 people are studying for an MBA, is meaningless.

But leaving this aside, there are two main criticisms. Firstly, that the rankings concentrate too much on money. In the FT, 40% of the ranking is made up of salary and salary increase – by far the biggest chunks. It results in the sorts of schools from which people go straight into highly paid City or Wall Street jobs ranking especially highly.

The FT does try to weight for this, but if you know that 40% of the top-ranked London Business School alumni went to work in financial services in the boom years of 2005-7, then you can imagine how the figure gets boosted. And, in its bid to be global, the FT translates local salaries into US dollars on a purchasing power parity basis. This could be responsible for the big weighted salary results from Indian schools – it’s easier to have massive purchasing power in a country where most people are incredibly poor.

Secondly, both the Economist and the FT get their information from alumni and schools – clearly a potential source of bias, whether conscious or not. The schools’ data is audited, but naturally enough, students have a vested interest in their school being ranked highly – an MBA from a top 10 school impresses recruiters.

Most business schools generally express a lofty but careful scepticism about rankings – while of course making full use of good scores in their marketing literature. In 2004, Wharton and Harvard boycotted rankings on the grounds that methodologies were not ‘objective’, but few go so far.

Cass is typical in saying that rankings are ‘one important indicator of quality’, but warns that ‘they are composed of an extremely large amount of disparate information and should be read carefully by prospective students’. Even the FT says that rankings are ‘one tool’ for deciding on an MBA, and that ‘each student will have personal criteria that cannot be represented in global rankings’.

So do would-be MBAs find the rankings useful? A recent survey of MBAs by GMAC, the organisation which administers the GMAT entry qualification used by almost all business schools, found that prospective students said that schools’ websites were the most useful source of information, followed by the rankings, then by meeting and talking to current students and alumni.

The question for would-be MBAers is how to use the rankings. The sheer quantity of data in the Economist and FT lists can be used to compare schools in many different ways, depending on an individual’s perspective and aims. As Julia Tyler, executive vice president of GMAC, says, choosing an MBA is ‘a bit like falling in love – we all wish there was a magic potion or silver bullet that helps us to make the right decision, but there isn’t’.

How the rankings work

FT

Forty per cent of the final ranking in the FT’s list comes from two numbers – the percentage increase in salary between pre and post-MBA and the total post-MBA salary, weighted on a purchasing power parity basis. The other 60% is made up of 20 much smaller slices, including the number of faculty with PhDs, and the answers to rather vague questions such as whether graduates have achieved their intended goals. It is also worth bearing in mind that the 2011 list is compiled using data from graduates of the classes of 2005-7, whose experiences may or may not be relevant to the post-crash world of 2011. Data is provided by alumni and the schools themselves.

The Economist

Alumni ratings make up 20% of the total ranking, while 80% of data is from schools. The scores are weighted 35% for ‘career opportunities’; 35% for ‘personal development/educational experience’; 20% ‘earning potential’; and 10% ‘networking potential’. Some of the schools that have appeared in the top places have surprised business education professionals.

Forbes

Uses information from alumni only, and simply looks at the increases in their salaries post-MBA. This has the virtue of simplicity, but is less useful for a prospective MBA scouring the rankings for broader information. It also concentrates heavily on us schools.

Business Week

Published every two years, this survey simply asks alumni how satisfied they are with their MBA school, and asks recruiters which schools they think produce the best MBAs. Again it is simple and easily understood. But it has only 18 non-US schools, which makes it feel somewhat old-fashioned compared with the FT or the Economist’s global lists.

Jointly designed and developed by the Advanced Centre for Informatics & Innovative Learning (ACIIL) and the International Division, the web portal offers various at different levels to both students and Partner Institutions (PI).

It provides support for better programme coordination as well as guidelines for those interested in working with IGNOU and is supported by a Wiki area that allows PIs to publish information and interact with their students.

For students who are already enrolled and for prospective learners, the portal has a list of programmes currently on offer with all details; support services for registration and evaluation; a query management system and a space for interaction in the form of community blogs and discussion forums. There is also a list of PIs that students access by clicking on the relevant links.

“We have ensured that IGNOU keeps pace with the changing times. Access to content is now easy even for international students. Open Programme Guide/Open Course Guide (OPG/OCG) is a crucial part of the Vedyadhara framework, one of the salient features of the portal. It enables students/lecturers to go through the online study material in form of online blocks for each programme and individual course,” Prof Srivathsan said.

“Contemporary and traditional programmes such as Gandhian Studies would be much in demand amongst the international students. Our counsellors can deliver online lectures, allowing e-learning and social networking for each course,” he added.

IGNOU programmes are offered through PIs in various countries. At present, there are over 40,000 students enrolled in IGNOU programmes in 40 countries, supported through 67 PIs.

“IGNOU started offering programmes to international students in 1994. The university realises the need to interact with its students. It feels that accounting for academic activities is necessary now, which is why the need to launch a platform for interaction arose. The ID portal is a tailored product for prospective learners and for those already pursuing it. The first phase of this portal is to make updated information available to the international students. It talks about programmes offered to international students, assists them, solves their queries, manages a date calendar for academic activities, offers a blog with respect to programmes and separate categories of PI,” said Prof Kusum Sharma, Director, ID.

Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. Architects are responsible for the design of new buildings, their surrounding landscape and interior design and are usually responsible for the supervision of their construction. They are also responsible for the renovation of old buildings and the extension of existing buildings. In addition to considering the ambience of these buildings and structures, they also make sure that these are functional, safe, cost efficient and suit the needs of the people who use them.

Skills required

A person opting for architecture as a career needs to have an analytical mind and be good at mathematics and physics. One needs to be good at designing too, as various plans need to be drawn and with information technology creeping into all walks of life, students must also be good with computers and computer design. An observant mind which can take into consideration the various economic and social factors also is required. Apart from that, architects deal with various legal procedures and documentation and take advice from a legal professional for various matters.

Responsibility and accountability go hand in hand in this profession and with hard work and commitment one can become established in this field.

Study route and eligibility The eligibility criterion for admission to a 5-year B.Arch course is 10+2 or equivalent from a recognised Board/University with Mathematics as a subject of examination with at least 50% aggregate marks. It is also mandatory for every candidate seeking admission to a 5-year B.Arch course to qualify in NATA.

The National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) is an online examination for admission to the 1st year of a 5-year B.Arch. degree in all architectural institutions in the country. The admissions will be carried out by respective State governments/competent authorities/association of architectural institutions in the State, based on the valid NATA score and marks secured in the qualifying examination in the ratio of 50:50. The details of test centres and NATA registration are available at www.nata.in or www.niasa.org. NATA measures aesthetic sensitivity, critical thinking, perception, observation and architectural awareness.

The Central Board of Secondary Education conducts a national level entrance examination — the AIEEE architecture exam for entry to undergraduate programmes in B. Architecture and B. Planning in NITs, as well as government and private institutes. The paper consists of mathematics, an aptitude test and a drawing test. Entrance to the architecture programmes at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is through a Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

After completing B.Arch, the candidates can go for the Master of Architecture (M.Arch.). The post graduate course is generally of 18 months to 2 years duration. There is scope for specialisation at the PG level in areas such as urban design, housing and environmental planning, architectural conservation, landscaping, transport planning, building engineering management, regional planning, town planning or they could branch off into industrial design, product design or interior designing.

Programmes in industrial design are offered among others by (i) National Institute of Design, (ii) Indian Institutes of Technology, (iii) Indian Institute of Science, and (iv) School of Planning and Architecture.

Job opportunities Employment opportunities exist for architects, both in the public and private sectors. A qualified architect can work with government organisations like central and state public work departments, housing and urban development corporation, municipalities, city development authorities, State housing boards, etc. They are also employed in industrial ventures, consultancy and private architectural firms, teaching institutions, real estate development firms, etc. The most privileged scope in the field of architecture is in private practice. With some years of experience in an organisation, architects can set up their own business.

A qualified architect must register with the Council of Architecture to work as a consultant or to set up private practice. This body, along with the Indian Institute of Architects, lays down the guidelines for working hours, work environment, fees, etc.

A number of research institutes such as the Central Building Research Institute and the Central Road Research Institute are involved in research and development in this field. Researchers are required to invent new methods and techniques of construction, so that the cost of construction is minimised. Qualified architects are hired for such research.

Institutes offering the course:

• School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
• Sir JJ College of Architecture ,Mumbai
• Indian Institute Of Technology, Kharagpur, Roorkee
• Punjab University, Chandigarh College of Architecture, Chandigarh
• School of Architecture CEPT, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad
• Lucknow University, Govt. College of Architecture, Tagore Road, Lucknow
• Goa University, College of Architecture, Goa
• Jawaharlal Nehru Technology University , Hyderabad
• College of Architecture, Pune
• Anna University, Chennai
• Bengal Engineering College
• Sushant School of Art and Architecture, Sushant Lok, District Gurgaon, Haryana
• NIT, Tirchy, Calicut and many more institutions.

A few colleges in Karnataka:

• RV College of Engineering, Bangalore
• BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore
• MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore
• Dayanand Sagar Institute of Technology, Bangalore
• University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Bangalore.
• Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal.

“It has been a very encouraging placement season and we are currently in the last leg. Moving with the flow of the booming Indian economy, over 100 companies have registered for placements this year. Most of our regular recruiters have shown a good participation,” said Priyanka Chordia, student and placement committee member, JBIMS.

Besides an increase in the number of job offers, the average pay packages have also gone up. “While the average salary last year was Rs 12.83 lakh, it will go up by approximately 15-20 per cent this year. The rise can be attributed to various factors, including the past performance of the alumni in the industry, performance of students in corporate events etc,” she said.

“A good increase in the number of pre-placement offers and pre-placement interviews towards the end of 2010 at JBIMS were also an indication of a good hiring season ahead,” said Chordia.

While students have been spoilt for choice, banking, financial services and insurance and fast moving consumer goods have dominated the scene at JBIMS. “Our institute specialises in finance and marketing. Students too are keen on profiles in areas like sales and marketing, branding, investment banking and corporate finance. There has also been a steep rise in the number of consulting firms on campus. We expect good participation from the IT and manufacturing sectors as well,” she added. Some of the major recruiters this year include McKinsey, HUL, Citibank, Procter & Gamble, ITC, Nomura, Reliance and Dabur.

A similar trend has been observed across all campuses this year. At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, campus placements that kickstarted in December have seen a substantial increase in the number of job offers as well as salaries. On an average, the salaries being offered by various companies at IIT Bombay has seen a rise of 20 per cent over the last year.

Also, in order to serve the purpose, the university has developed a software namely e-Resource of Experts which helps in online database creation and management. It will also be useful for the faculty of IGNOU as well as for the experts.

IGNOU’s e-Resource of Experts has three modules including Data Entry Module, Data Access Module and Data Editing Module.

Data Entry Module is open for all. Any subject expert, who thinks that he/she can contribute for the aforesaid causes of IGNOU, can submit his/her profile online. There is also a provision of updating the profiles. The experts can update or modify their profile any time just by using their user ID and password generated at the time of registration.

Data Access Module has restricted access for the IGNOU officials only. The authorized IGNOU faculty and staff can access the e-Resources of Experts to search for an expert by name, subject area, specialisation or location etc.

Data Editing Module has restricted access for the administrator only for generating different types of lists of the experts. The administrator can add and update profile of an expert from time to time.

Dr. O.P. Sharma, Deputy Director, NCIDE, IGNOU, has said that besides being highly user friendly for the experts, faculty, staff and the administrator, the e-Resource of Experts has certain features such as anybody from anywhere can upload his/her profile anytime, the profile of an expert can be updated from time to time by the expert as well as by the administrator. He also said that it provides facility to search for an expert by name, subject area of specialization or location and also gives a quick view of subject wise list of experts. He also added that users can also view the complete profile of an expert for detailed information.

Moreover, as per sources, all the profiles received can be scrutinized by the concerned faculty and the list of suitable experts may be generated online. Any expert who wants to join hands, can submit his/her profile online by clicking the button ‘e-Resource of Experts’, given on the home page of IGNOU’s website www.ignou.ac.in . They should ensure that the information they provide is accurate. However, IGNOU reserves the right not to consider an expert to work in IGNOU which it believes has furnished wrong details or it finds it to be misleading or unsuitable for the University.

Having tied up with three other universities, which have signed MoU with the KSOU, it expects its student enrolment to cross 200,000 this year-end.

It has also ambitious plans to launch some more courses in subjects like physics and chemistry in 2011-11. “We propose to build our own infrastructure in the campus for running such courses where face-to-face interaction is required,” KSOU Vice-Chancellor K.S.Rangappa said. He was speaking after signing MoU with Bangalore-based iNurture Educational Solutions Pvt.Ltd. iNurture Managing Director Ashwin Ajila said iNurture planned 14 new courses that focus on increasing employability in students. While the structure is as designed by the KSOU, the content for the courses will be provided by iNurture partnering with experts in the area so as to cater to the emerging career sectors.

The courses will be mainly bachelor and post-graduate degrees in subject verticals like animation, creative sciences, mobile applications, financial services, IT – infrastructure management systems, infrastructure storage management and embedded systems.

Candidates who are willing to check there results can visit the Students Zone of IGNOU’s official website to check there results.

Indra Gandhi National Open university, established in 1985 is one the largest distance learning education University in India. The University, at present, offers 338 programmes of study through over 3,500 courses to a cumulative student strength of over 30 lakh students.

Click here to check B.Ed Results.

To know more about the examinations and other courses offered by IGNOU, visit the official website of University of University.

As the final placement process for the 2011 Post Graduate Programme (PGP) students — the first cluster — kick started on Saturday, they received more number of international offers compared to last year.

Official communiqué from the IIMA said that this year international recruiters not only offered jobs to students at their Mumbai office, but also at their Singapore and London offices. Observers said that this is an indication of IIMA students’ acceptance in global market with other international reputed B- schools.

Especially, after IIMA’s PGPX course gained global prominence when it was rated among the top full-time programmes for executives across the globe.

“As a reflection of the improving market situation, there were a greater number of international offers this year. Global investment banks visited the campus in greater numbers than last year. In addition to their Mumbai office, roles were offered in their Singapore and London offices. Consulting firms also offered more international roles than previous years,” said the official communiqué.

It also claims that consulting firms – BCG and McKinsey offered the highest number of jobs. BCG made 11 offers, while McKinsey offered 10 jobs, including pre-placement offers. Both the companies have recruited higher number of students than the previous year. In the final placement 2010, Mckinsey & Co and the Boston Consulting Group made eight offers each, including the pre-placement offers.

Double degree student Paul Ricard from HEC Paris, received an offer from Oliver Wyman — a leading global management consulting firm.

Richard said, “My objectives, when I joined the programme, were to discover the most promising economy in the world and initiate a great international career. Today, I have achieved both. IIMA’s placement process is rapid and efficient. The students are extremely helpful, in spite of the great stakes involved.”

The final placement process 2011 followed the cluster-based process, which was successfully pioneered last year. It was followed this year too. This cluster had companies across four cohorts – international investment banks, global strategy consulting, global niche consulting and private equity/ venture capital, similar to last year. The second cluster will be held on February 19.

The new course would address an important emerging need, of an officer having successfully qualified on an integrated program combining the skills of fire, safety and disaster management in one person. The programme will develop skills and competencies as an officer, where the officer would be able to react to all types of situations/emergencies. Officers trained on this programme will be able to handle any type of emergency/crisis situation. They will get a stipend of Rs. 8,000 per month from the first day of training with assured employment at a salary of minimum Rs. 12,000 per month after completion of training.

The program is a one-year programme of 40 credits with theory and practical with industry exposure, in the ratio of 50:50. The teaching would follow the face to face fully residential model. The program curriculum has been designed by experts from the fire industry, academic faculty of IGNOU and experts of SSCI.

It may be noted that SSCI and IGNOU have collaborated to conduct a number of credit and non-credit programmes in security and allied subjects.