I came across this good article on what ails the IIMs. I agree whole-heartedly about students being disinterested in the second year, lack of research, infrastructure in some of the old IIMs being bad etc, but here are my add-ons to the article.
National demand of 20,000 IIM students per year:
I agree that 1,500 is a paltry number when it comes to number of pass-outs every year. But I really don’t think a 20,000 count is where we want to head. Looking at the industry recruitment trends, there is sure some room for say 2500 more, but I feel it would be a disaster to increase the number any point beyond. For one, there are other good B-schools that chip-in in the gap. Two, with that kind of a massive number, there would just be too much of difference within the IIMs. In other words, there would be a huge quality difference between the top IIM students and the bottom ones, which isn’t really good for anyone. Remember, the numero uno reason why IIMs, in general, are considered good is because of the quality of intake. If numbers swell and intake goes down in quality, it is something to worry about. And salaries are something you can’t ignore. You really wouldn’t want to pass out from an IIM only to know that some of the non-IIT Engineering pass-outs earn more than you.
About International ranking:
The other issue that comes often is how IIMs are never among the top-50 B-schools in the world. Those surveys are biased alright, but am I the only person to think that these international surveys are heavily biased against non-US B-schools? Does everyone really agree that 55 out of the top-100 B-schools are in US? Is education throughout the rest of the world that bad?
Here’s one more: 15% of the overall weightage is given to salary upon graduation, which is always measured in dollar terms. Someone go and tell them there is something called Purchase Parity adjustment and Cost-of-Living adjustment. In other words, Indian salaries don’t stand a chance when converted to dollar for rankings, but is more than enough for a king-size life in India. This 15% alone could be the deciding factor.
My point is: IIMs don’t stand a chance in these surveys even if they deserve it.
Student diversity
Agreed that 70% of IIMs are engineers, but I wouldn’t call it staid, particularly in the Indian context where Engineering is given so much of importance. It’s not that talented people from all streams are not given a chance and only engineers are pulled in. Most of the good guys go to engineering. I agree that IIMs can't stand a chance in international rankings due to the huge weightage to salary factor. another argument is that IIMs are not comparable to foreign B schools because IIMs basically impart entry-level management education to freshers. But even if you keep that aside, there is too much ailing the IIMs to score in other areas. But you would generally agree that a LOT needs to be corrected in the IIMs to even consider calling them global level. Yes, things will gradually improve and mature over time. Or maybe competition from US B schools post FDI in higher education will be that one-tight-slap to get HRD ministry to put their act together.
As for the statement that 'most of the good guys go to engineering', i think we are wise enough to see how blanket and generalising that sounds. Do consider that CAT is too superloaded on quant-skills for non-engineering applicants to show their abilities. We suck at networking and people management. We Indians can quantify things and crunch numbers like Gods but we totally suck at looking people in the eye and not speaking utter globe while trying to sell them something. No amount of MBA classes can repair that, only the real world can. So i wouldn't confuse good number crunching aptitude with good managerial/leadership aptitude.
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