The Ringside

Rankings cometh!

Its that time of the year again.

Hundreds of thousands of young Indians will be joining universities in the next two months. Some are fresh from school, others are pursuing masters or research. India being a large and diverse country, there is a general lack of information among both students and parents. Word of mouth advice is still important, but given the proliferation of private institutes and aggressive advertising students and parents look towards Rankings to provide an impartial and fair view.

It is a running argument that rankings are bogus and dont reflect the true realities. In India rankings are yet to mature, hence every media house wants to jump onto it with a view to the future.... one day afterall some rankings will emerge as the authority, much like USNews and Business Week rankings are seen in the US.

There are three ranking systems available;

1. Annual surveys by various magazines such as Outlook and India Today
2. Advice by various CAT coaching centres
3. Advice by consulting firms such as Mercer and Hewitt

1. Same time last year I made a list of 'reputed' B-School surveys by media houses:

Business India (MaRS)
Business Today (AC Nielson)
Business World (Cosmode)
Outlook (C-FORE)
All India Management Association (IMRB)

The first influential rankings to be published is the annual India Today/Business Today survey, which I expect to come out next month. Note that the publications routinely change their research agencies. So dont be surprised if AC Nielsen rankings come out in a different vehicle this year. The other B-School rankings follow on till November (the CAT month).

2. Coaching centres thru their large franchise network are a signficant influence on MBA aspirants. Students spend a considerable time at the institutes interacting with the faculty there, so its natural for them to have influence over students.

Since these institutes dont conduct their own research, their advice is based on a composite score derived from the surveys listed above.

CareerForum (http://www.cflogic.com/)
IMS (http://www.imsindia.com/)
Career Launcher (http://www.careerlauncher.com/)

3. While students can rely a lot more on media, word of mouth, and actual visits to shape their opinion, corporates recruiters are often guided by the influence of colleagues who are alumni of their various colleges. Rankings by BT, BW have their influence too. However, when they need professional opinion they can approach HR consulting firms like Hewitt and Mercer.

posted by Aditya @ 5/15/2006 10:09:00 AM