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Despite increasing number of MBA options available to aspirants, the interest in MBA education has not been much encouraging in India over last few years. This has resulted in most of the MBA colleges, excluding Top 40-50 B-schools, struggling to fill their seats and some even filing for closure of their management programmes.

MBA institutes are coming up with new programmes, innovative admission schemes and big promises. But, none seems to be working in their favour. So what are the corrective measures?

Experts believe that concern over quality of management education has deepened amongst all the stakeholders including Educators, Aspirants and Policymakers.  They feel that promoting the quality of MBA education is the only way to succeed for B-schools in India.

In this special column, Dr Rajan Saxena, Vice Chancellor & Distinguished Professor Of Marketing at SVKM`s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, talks on why quality is of supreme importance and what Indian B-schools should be doing to uplift quality of their education.

Quality assurance in Management Education

We are transitioning through critical moments in the global economic history, corporate governance and political systems. It is a time when globalization has come to be associated with entrepreneurship, innovation & redundancy of time and geography. It has also become synonymous with exploitation of resources – natural, human, ecology and markets. It is a time when despite the imperative of globalization, we see the growth of strong nationalist sentiments and emergence of new block of nations acting as power centers.

It is a time when the corporate and society’s confidence in MBA is at low ebb. As we all know, MBA has come to be associated with global financial meltdown of 2008. It is in this context that quality and excellence in management education has become paramount.

Promoting Quality for Management Schools

The way forward for improving the quality in management education in India is to shift focus of regulation from approval to accreditation and self disclosures. The current initiatives of Government of India to set up National Commission of Higher Education and Research as also make accreditation mandatory are commendable.

Quality in education is about the learner experience. Does a learner achieve his or her desired objectives of knowledge acquisition and skill development? If learning experience is a goal, institutions will have to focus on programs, people and processes. They will have to define their input – throughput – output process.  One would have to move away from the accounting perspective to an institutional development perspective. As was mentioned, education is all about developing learnability and inquisitive minds among individuals who can relate to their environment in a holistic manner. Hence, my view is that unless and until all the processes, systems and structure embrace quality, it would be difficult for an institution to develop the above breed of learners and managers.

Student Quality

In the quality model student quality has to be a starting point. Student quality is not just a function of an admission test as stipulated by AICTE but the result of a combination of factors like marketing of programs to desired student markets and the process used to evaluate learnability, people skills and fit with program objectives and institutional goal.

Therefore, the institutions need to focus on quality of the admission test, and evaluation of background of the aspirants and assess whether it matches the learning goals of the program.

Faculty Quality

It is not adequate to have good quality students only. Institutions need good quality faculty also.  Faculty is the Achilles’ heel in management education. But there is a dearth of quality faculty in the country. Faculty quality is about faculty’s education qualifications, experience and attitude. It is about conceptualization and relational skills individual brings to work. Understanding of pedagogy and ‘how and where to use different pedagogical tools’ is also important for a good faculty.

Program Quality

A good program is at the heart of learning strategy. The program quality is defined by its learning objectives, relevance of the contents and its overall architecture. It is also about assessment of the student through the program. The rigor in the program does not come through a very large number of subjects and credits but how it is delivered. The pedagogy defines not just the quality but the rigor in the program. Program Quality is also about the assurance of learning which is about its evaluation process.

Systems Quality

The Systems Quality relates to the overall quality of academic, student support, assessment and administrative systems of the institution. It is about academic administrative system of continuously reviewing progress of the program and students in the program.

Process Quality

Here the focus of the Institution will have to be on the various academic, administrative, financial, human resources and student processes. Investment in development of processes that enhances transparency and equity in the organization is important.

Governance Quality

Governance is about how the policies are framed, administered and monitored over a period of time. In the context of management institutions, it is important to consider the extent of faculty involvement in all these areas.

Relationship Quality

Finally, it is about how institutions develop relationship with its stakeholders, namely industry, society and the alumni.

Hence, quality in management education is about the overall institutional quality and not just the program quality or statutory approvals.

About the Author:

Dr Rajan Saxena is Vice Chancellor & Distinguished Professor Of Marketing at SVKM`s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) University.

He carries about four decades of experience in academia, research, consulting and institution building. In his long academic career, he has served as Director of IIM-Indore; Director of S. P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) and Dean of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

An alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi, from where he did his Bachelor and Master’s program in commerce, Dr Saxena did his Ph.D. work at Delhi School of Economics in the Marketing area and was awarded Ph. D. by Delhi University.

Besides Top B-schools in India such as XLRI- Jamshedpur, S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai, IIM Calcutta and NMIMS and IIM Indore, Dr Saxena has also taught in University of Calgary, Canada and has been a British Council visitor at the University of Sterling, U.K.

Source: MBA Universe