What Should a Student Look for in a B-School?

Fee Structure and Return on Investment (ROI): You should check out the fees and other charges of the B-school that you are looking at very carefully, particularly if you plan to finance your management studies through an education loan. More specifically, you should check out the B-school’s payback period, which is defined as the period in months that it takes to recover the B-school’s fees, excluding hostel rent, based on the average placement salary for that school. For example, if you are looking at two B-schools, one of which charges Rs. 10 Lakh and has an average placement salary of Rs. 7 Lakh, while the other charges Rs. 8 Lakh and has an average placement salary of Rs. 6 Lakh, the latter B-school has the higher payback period/ ROI, though the former has a slightly higher average salary. While it is good to be optimistic, and aspire for a placement with higher than average salary, it is advisable to be prudent in financial matters, and check whether you will be able to comfortably repay the loan along with accumulated interest, after providing for all your living expenses, if your first placement salary is 10-15% less than the average placement salary of the school.

Approval by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE): Approval by the AICTE guarantees a certain minimum level of faculty-student ratio and infrastructure. While all PGDM programmes have to be necessarily approved by the AICTE, not all MBA programmes that are affiliated to a university are approved by the AICTE. MBA programmes that are offered directly by universities also do not necessarily have to be approved by the AICTE. It is left to the university’s discretion whether it would like its MBA programme to be approved by the AICTE. As securing AICTE approval requires significant investment by the B-school on infrastructure and faculty, my advice to MBA aspirants is that they should apply only to AICTE approved MBA/PGDM programmes. If at all you wish to apply to a university, my advice is, apply only to those universities whose MBA programmes are AICTE approved.

Location: Location is of paramount importance for all professional programmes that offer placements. In general, industry interface is best in metro cities that are industrial and business hubs, followed by quasi metros and large state capitals, in that order. MBA aspirants should avoid B-schools located in medium-sized or small cities, as placement prospects and the scope for corporate interfacing in such cities may be limited.

Programmes Offered: Most of the time, niche specialisations such as MBA (Retail) or PGDM (Insurance) offered by B-Schools become irrelevant when the students finish their programme. Core specialisations like Marketing, Finance and HR, which enjoy traction across all sectors, are everlasting and career growth prospects in these domains are always attractive. Also, new specialisations offered by B-Schools should be in line with the demand from sunrise industries or in areas of growing demand – for example, Business Analytics is an area where there is considerable and unmet demand for skilled resources.

Faculty: Ultimately, the strengths and experience of the faculty in a B-School will determine the quality of academic delivery. Faculty with a mix of experience in industry and academia, with qualifications from reputed colleges/institutions and a proven track record in research are the core qualities to look for. While most quality B-schools have a large proportion of faculty with PhDs, what you should look for specifically are (a) whether the proportion of full-time faculty with PhD exceeds 85-90% of all full-time faculty, (b) how many faculty are graduates or PhDs from top institutions such as the IIMs, IITs, IISc, etc. or from leading overseas universities in the USA, UK, Singapore, etc. and (c) the ratio of full-time faculty to sanctioned student intake across both years and programmes. This should ideally be 1:15 or less.  

Finally, how does one ascertain the quality of a B-school? One should not depend on any single source, but should cross-check with multiple sources before taking a final call. These sources, not necessarily in order of priority, are: the B-school’s website and prospectus; the B-school’s faculty, admissions staff, alumni and present students; heads and owners of CAT/MAT coaching institutions; faculty of other B-schools located in the same city or state as the B-school that you are examining; rankings across different  publications (please don’t restrict your search to only one publication); and last, but certainly not least, business executives, particularly those from HR.

I wish you good luck in your B-school selection process.

About the Author:

Prof. Gautam Ghosh

Prof. Gautam Ghosh, Director, Rajalakshmi B-School, is an industry and management academic veteran with over 40 years’ experience.