B-School expansion: What does it have for you?
Garima Upadhyay Rawat
Management education has come a long way in India. Its ability to catapult young graduates to the higher ranks of the corporate pyramid makes MBA the preferred choice for the youth. Call it the popularity of the programme or the mandate of the five-year plans which led to the setting up of seven new IIMs along with many private B schools setting up campuses in India.
However, this expansion to replicate top B-Schools at various places is central to India. A look at top B-Schools in the world like Stanford business school, INSEAD, Wharton, Harvard, Columbia, etc shows that they have not expanded (set up new institutes) till now…
Why expand at all?
The 11th five-year plan, endorsed by the National Development Council in December 2007, recommended raising the number of top business schools in the country from the (then) existing six to 13. The new IIMs covered the length and breadth of the country. From Uttarakhand to Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya to Rajasthan, the new breed of IIMs caters to student population that is geographically widespread.
While the move may seem justified as it enhances access and brand equity, many believe that this move can hamper quality of education being imparted in such schools.
AICTE chairman, SS Mantha opines, “There is a reason why Harvard continues to be what it is. One of the primary explanations that they have not expanded is because they are focused on quality… However, expansion is not a bad word. Only when B-Schools expand to further their vested interests, does the move lead to inadequacy. While expanding, B-Schools must not let quality suffer; because the future of students is on stake.”
Challenges of expansion
Quality continues to be a major challenge in their expansion plans, but B-Schools are upbeat about setting up campuses in other locations.
The last few years have seen IMI set up campuses in Bhubaneswar and Kolkata, ISB expanded to Mohali, while there are other popular B-Schools with expansion plans at the moment. BIMTECH plans to set up a campus in Bhubaneswar, MDI plans to set up a campus in Murshidabad, and Great Lakes Institute of Management is in the process of acquiring land from the Odisha government. Talking about BIMTECH Bhubaneswar campus, Dr Harivansh Chaturvedi, director BIMTECH says, “If everything goes well, we will make the campus operational by July 2013.” Ask him why Bhubaneswar, and he says, “In our endeavour to emerge as a premier B-School in India, we wanted to expand. In the various proposals by Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat governments, we found the one by Odisha government very encouraging and therefore decided to go ahead with a 30-acre campus in Bhubaneswar.”
What does it mean for management aspirants?
Unlike the West, where management education is the purview of a lucky few, in India it is positioned as inclusive and accessible to all. While the number of seats will go up with more B-Schools setting-up campuses, “students will also have better options to choose from,” adds Dr Chaturvedi.
“Though there have been a large number of institutions offering management courses, there were not many institutions of repute in the eastern part of the country. Institutes differentiate themselves by a particular offering and hence offer specialisations which are hard to match by other institutes, and hence create a desirable proposition for the management aspirant,” says TN Swaminathan, director branding, PR & Alumni Relations, and professor marketing at Great Lakes Institute of Management.
“BIMTECH Bhubaneswar will cater to the manpower needs of 10 states in eastern India. The students will get a chance to be a part of the growth story of the eastern part of the country which shall witness development on a very large scale in the near future. Students will get exposure to their culture, economy, demographics etc which will help them in their professional careers,” believes Chaturvedi.
Operational challenges
Management aspirants can hope to accrue some advantages from this expansion, however uncertainty looms large as far as getting ‘quality management education’ goes. The 12th plan also addresses the concern that “merely increasing the number of higher educational institutions and their enrollment capacity will not achieve the national developmental goals without concurrent attention to quality and its access to all those who desire it.”
Prof Ramesh Behl, director IMI Bhubaneswar dispels such doubts. “Quality is very important for us and in keeping with the brand image of IMI (Delhi) we were very cautious while selecting the first batch in 2011. Very carefully we handpicked 12 students in the first year and 25 students in our second year of operation.”
Ask him if these B-schools run a risk of facing faculty crunch, poor placements, lackluster industry-interface and he says, “Since most of these B-schools are off-shoots of established management institutes, faculty is not a problem. In our case, we share some faculty with IMI, Delhi and also share resources among the three campuses. The placements have been up to the mark for all campuses and we, along with our students, keep organising various events like roundtables, guest lectures and cultural activities in the campus that bring the industry closer to us.”
Adds Dr Chaturvedi, “We have already started some consultancy projects in Odisha that target enhancing employability and development of the handicrafts industry to name a few. By the time the campus becomes operational the ties with the industry will strengthen more.”
Way ahead
Setting up newer institutions imparting management education requires a strong partnership with the industry. These institutes are expected to give a boost to the economy of tier-II towns. However, to sustain this partnership, especially at a time when foreign institutes are keenly eyeing the Indian market, there has to be a seamless integration of academia with the industry. Management education is going through a transition, only when all stakeholders come together, can we expect quality education being imparted.
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