Indian Mgmt Schools Rush For Global Accreditation

Indian Management institutes are increasingly applying for international accreditation, including from bodies like the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), Association of MBAs (AMBA) and EQUIS, for getting into the list of global schools having coveted accreditation.

Pritam Singh, Director of International Management Institute, Delhi said, "We got the AMBA accreditation and planning to apply for AACSB. We were one of the few institutes to get AMBA accreditation. It is prestigious to have an international accreditation, as it proves you have standards matching the global level".

The applications for applying AACSB accreditation have been increased, getting the accreditation from it may not be easy.

According to Gurumurthy Kalyanatam, Dean, University Research at Varsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), and professor and management consultant, very few IIMs have applied for AACSB and even if they do, it be may be challenging to get the accreditation.

Carol Turner, spokesperson for AMBA, said five business school in India have received MABA accreditation such as, IIM Kozhikode, Iim Lucknow, IMI Delhi, MDI Gurgaon and SP jain Institute of Management & Research.

EQUIS accreditation is given by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), and this has been granted to only IIM Bangalore and IIM Ahmedabad.

"To get an AACSB accreditation, an institute needs to have qualifies full-time faculty fro each and every programme offered by them. This is not true of the IIMs and most other business schools in India because the schools are offering many degree programmes and there is lack of qualified faculty," he said. He further added that institutes including NMIMS and Amrita School of Management have applied for AACSB accreditation and have been declared as eligible.

Kalyanaram blamed the total lack of research for this dismal performance, "If you look at any institute in the US, most off the faculty, at one point or other, had indulged in some form of research or the other. In India, research is given very little value both by faculty and students. Therefore, what implied is that we are behind the western institutes in content, since we insist mostly on textbooks in classroom teaching. Indian Universities are at least 5 years behind in content compared to the content taught in classrooms in US institutes".

He added that it was this lack of intellectual output that left educational institutions behind. Other reasons according to him, included lack of infrastructure and incentive structure for faculty in India.

Turner added that there are more business schools in india looking to gain global accreditation and the number of business schools applying for association of MBAs has increased in the last 2 years. Once a business school receives accreditation from AMBA they then have access to international MBA Networks through our accredited business schools worldwide an dour student, graduate and empower membership networks.