The traditional model of management education that has been practised in the country for decades has failed to serve its purpose, says Nirmalya Kumar, 56, member of the group executive council at Tata Sons, the holding company of the $108-billion, salt-to-software conglomerate.
This is evident from the massive outflow of management students seeking admission in foreign universities each year and the low level of internationally published research papers emanating from Indian business schools, adds Kumar, who is regarded as one of the world's leading management thinkers.
But green shoots of change are visible in the way management education is imparted in the country, with the arrival of some new-age business schools that appreciate the need of global managers for global businesses. In an interview, Kumar tells Forbes India that top management institutes here need to change their enrolment strategy and even hire teachers who have trained at top global institutions by offering them competitive salaries.
Edited excerpts:
In a sense, management education has failed in the country. Otherwise, so many people wouldn't be leaving the country to study abroad. We don't see too many Americans, Germans or Japanese students leaving their home countries to pursue higher studies.
Then comes the aspect of building world-class institutions. None of the Indian universities features among the top 200 in the World University Rankings (brought out by Times Higher Education). If you look at research, the entire universe of Indian faculty across management schools has together published less papers in leading international journals than I have over the course of my career. And I wasn't even the most productive in the world.
So business schools in India, especially the IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management), are stuck in the pre-1991 mentality, which is very much about controlling the supply of students that enter these schools and graduate each year, since there is no dearth of demand.
In that sense, these institutes function more like selection agencies who, through the entrance process, do a pre-selection of brilliant students for potential recruiters to choose from. The intellectual processing that they do with these students over the course of the academic tenure becomes irrelevant.
This model doesn't serve the country since those who can afford it prefer to study abroad and the intelligent ones get a scholarship. A majority of the remaining students are served by low-quality management schools that have sprung up across the country. They get a degree in business education from these colleges, but it has no value.
This is evident from the massive outflow of management students seeking admission in foreign universities each year and the low level of internationally published research papers emanating from Indian business schools, adds Kumar, who is regarded as one of the world's leading management thinkers.
But green shoots of change are visible in the way management education is imparted in the country, with the arrival of some new-age business schools that appreciate the need of global managers for global businesses. In an interview, Kumar tells Forbes India that top management institutes here need to change their enrolment strategy and even hire teachers who have trained at top global institutions by offering them competitive salaries.
Edited excerpts:
In a sense, management education has failed in the country. Otherwise, so many people wouldn't be leaving the country to study abroad. We don't see too many Americans, Germans or Japanese students leaving their home countries to pursue higher studies.
Then comes the aspect of building world-class institutions. None of the Indian universities features among the top 200 in the World University Rankings (brought out by Times Higher Education). If you look at research, the entire universe of Indian faculty across management schools has together published less papers in leading international journals than I have over the course of my career. And I wasn't even the most productive in the world.
So business schools in India, especially the IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management), are stuck in the pre-1991 mentality, which is very much about controlling the supply of students that enter these schools and graduate each year, since there is no dearth of demand.
In that sense, these institutes function more like selection agencies who, through the entrance process, do a pre-selection of brilliant students for potential recruiters to choose from. The intellectual processing that they do with these students over the course of the academic tenure becomes irrelevant.
This model doesn't serve the country since those who can afford it prefer to study abroad and the intelligent ones get a scholarship. A majority of the remaining students are served by low-quality management schools that have sprung up across the country. They get a degree in business education from these colleges, but it has no value.
[Source: Forbes India]
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Prof. Bholanath Dutta
Founder & President
MTC Global: An Apex Global Advisory Body
in Management Education, ISO 9001: 2008
Partner: UN Global Compact I UN Academic Impact
Cell: +91 96323 18178 / +91 9964660759
The views expressed are individual and not necessarily MTC Global also share the same views.
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