The Biz of Coding

IIMs missing while ISB Hyderabad is 20th in Financial Times MBA Rankings

by Ujwal Tickoo on January 28th, 2008

Indian School of Business, Hyderabad has been ranked 20th by Financial Times in its 2008 B-School Rankings. This is the highest rank that an India based B-School has achieved and worthy of much appreciation.

Whats Missing? India's IIM's (especially A, B, C) don't figure in this list which obviously doesn't correlate with reality (salaries offerred by Indian and International companies, competition to enter the school etc.). Alumni of IIM A, B, C are often CEOs of several Indian/International companies or are leading entreprenuers. Whats missing in FT's rankings, in the Indian context? Financial Times methodology includes the following:

To be eligible to participate, a business school must be internationally accredited by a body such as the AACSB, AMBA or EQUIS…

ISB has AMBA accredition. I am not sure if the IIMs goverened by the Indian Government are yet accredited to AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS. IIM A was seeking EQUIS accredition in Dec 2006. So I guess the IIMs were not even eligible to participate in these rankings. In any case all ranking systems need to be taken with a pinch of salt. FT ranks Kellogg School of Northwestern University — 24th — 4 ranks behind ISB.

Kellogg by all known sources is one of the most prestious B-Schools in the world. Then Kellogg, Wharton, and London Business School are partner schools of the 7 year old ISB and Kellogg for several years was ranked number 1 by BusinessWeek Rankings. How does this make sense? Or that Wharton, Stanford GSB, and HBS can move several ranks up and down based on who is ranking with what parameters. Does that bother recruiters willing to pay increasing $$$ salaries?

Need my big lump of salt. B-School ranking madness will continue to amuse or tickle us. I will continue to need my fresh breath of reality. ;)

Well done ISB! Financial Times — India as an important world economy needs better coverage. Its wasteful to do rankings in a vaccum if you are trying to provide objective and comprehensive information to students world-wide. Example: Consider AICTE accredited MBA/Tech programs — something that works in India.

POSTED IN: India