Indian Business Schools Versus Ivy-League Institutes: Quality of Education

chillibreeze writer — Preeti Bakshi

India’s management institutes have been creating news for the past few years. Their talented students are getting good recognition in the corporate world. Foreign corporates are visiting these campuses for recruitments. This makes one think about the quality of education offered at Indian management institutes vis-à-vis the Ivy League schools. Since the IIMs are the best management institutes in the country, let’s do a comparison of the Ivy colleges with the IIMs.

Let’s first understand what we mean by the quality of education. Quality of any product is measured using some measurable parameters, which will determine the characteristics of the final product. In case of a management institute, the characteristics of the final product, i.e. the students, would be their skills and learnings, which are developed at the institute and used for the purpose of business or education in their lives.

The quality would depend on the processing that the students undergo during their stay at the institute. Different factors influencing this would be the quality of faculty; content they are exposed to, the delivery mechanism, capabilities of the students, infrastructure, and the exposure to the outside world.

Faculty forms the most important component of the educational quality offered to the students. The IIMs have a strong faculty. They have many years of research experience behind them, and actively consult the industry on various issues. When such people develop the content and also teach in the class, students are offered not only the course material, but also their teachers’ vast experience.

The delivery mechanism largely followed is the case method. This ensures that the flow of ‘gyan’ is not just one way; the students are allowed to speak in the class, interacting and offering their views on different issues. You don’t need a teacher to tell you the basics; a good book can also do that. The students are encouraged to finish all the basic reading on their own, before the class. This ensures that during the lecture session, students apply this knowledge to real life situations and think about the solution.

Let’s compare this scenario with the Ivy League colleges. The quality of faculty at renowned institutes like Harvard or Stanford is excellent, including teachers who are Nobel laureates and active consultants to global corporations. In this respect, the Ivy League does appear in a different league from the IIMs. The cases presented in classes are still largely Indian. The research work is also restricted to India. In these times, the students need to be given exposure to real life case studies of global corporation, written by the faculty at their own institutes rather than cases borrowed from global institutes. Research should be strong and the faculty should be active in the industry. Are lower salaries the issue? Most of the Ivy-League institutes have faculty of Indian origin. How can we bring them back? They will surely be able to provide a global touch to our education.

Most of the Ivy-League colleges also follow a case method and a similar delivery mechanism; a lot of discussion, assignments, etc,. However, one parameter on which we lag behind is the industry interaction. Students should be able to apply their learning in the field and not just do it as part of a course. However, the quality of students at the IIMs is well known. They have to go through a tough screening process and they are considered the cream of talent available in the market.

At Ivy League institutes, the work experience of students on an average is higher than our institutes. An experienced student can bring a different perspective to the discussions happening in the class. It is often argued that the analytical skills of the students from the IIMs are great, but a lot is left to be desired on the soft skills side. The reason could be the work experience. It is easy to learn analytical skills in a simulated environment, in the classroom; however, one would be able to relate to the soft skill issue only when it has been experienced at some time.

The background of students at these institutes is largely science or engineering, whereas at Ivy League institutes, it is a healthy mix of different streams. A good blend will ensure that discussions will have many different perspectives and much greater learning for everyone. Maybe, we need to do something about the entrance test structure, which currently favors students with good quantitative skills.

The IIMs might be the best management institutes in the country, but we are still playing second fiddle to the Ivy League institutes. Can we get an entry in the same league? Can we further improve the quality of education?

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—About our writer:

Preeti says, "A self confessed foodie and a music buff, I love reading. Opted to work in retail industry after an MBA from IIMA. I wish to make our education system simpler for everyone !!"

Indian Business Schools Versus Ivy-League Institutes: Quality of Education

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