IIM-L and IIM-I are stacked at no 5 and no 6 slots. While this may sound predictable, the surprise comes from the strong showing from Mumbai based NMIMS and Hyderabad based ICFAI Business School. NMIMS has moved up the rankings rapidly to get 10th slot. It was pegged at no 17 in last survey. ICFAI Business School moved up by 4 ranks to be pegged at no 9 this year.
In a marked departure from other B-school surveys, the BT-AC Nielsen survey is based on a ‘poll’ of MBA-stakeholder. Says the survey, “We poll all the stakeholders of a B-school, comprising MBA wannabes, recruiters, young executives, current MBAs, and functional heads. Therefore, we don’t try to quantify debatable parameters such as the number of academic papers written by B-school faculty or how many books it has in its library.” Most other B-school surveys are based on data collected on parameters like institute’s infrastructure, intellectual capital and placement records.
Noting that Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad is a winner by far, survey says, “Broadly speaking, there are two dimensions to IIM-A’s success as a premier B-school. One, the quality of the institute’s faculty and students. Two, the academic freedom the institute has enjoyed over the decades that has led to incredible innovation”.
How can aspiring B-schools move up the pecking order of BT survey? Survey offers some clues: “Apparently, placements, quality of infrastructure, reputation, and specialization. While MBA wannabes put placement and reputation ahead of other factors such as faculty or teaching methodology, the recruiters valued infrastructure, specialization, and teaching methodology, which includes things like faculty-student ratio, counseling and industry exposure.”
Survey is based on Nielsen’s proprietary ‘Winning Brands’ model. This considers eight different attributes- reputation, teaching methodology, infrastructure, placement, admission eligibility, faculty, specialist units, and quality of placements. The survey is based on data collected from 592 respondents in 12 cities.
How top 10 B-schools stack up in BT survey ‘07:
Institutes 2007 Rank 2006 Rank
IIM-A 1 1
IIM-B 2 2
IIM-C 3 3
Symbiosis-Pune 4 4
IIM-L 5 5
IIM-I 6 8
JBIMS-Mumbai 6 7
XLRI 8 6
ICFAI-Hyd 9 13
NMIMS-Mumbai 10 17
Source: Business Today, September 23, 2007
