Changing AICTE B-school norms, suggestions

• Copy of document submitted to Fr Abraham, Director XIMB a member of the Four member committee to suggest changes to the Norms and Standards being prescribed by AICTE for the B-Schools. (18th August 2007)
  
  By A Thothathri Raman
  
• Original norms of AICTE for approvals is available by following this link from the AICTE website.
  

MODIFICATIONS SUGGESTED

Clause 1.2 (AICTE Norms and Standards document)

The assumptions need to be redrafted in the light of the fact that there are increasingly sectoral oriented schools, schools of differing quality and reach, schools catering to specific market segments etc., where an omnibus one size fit all assumption for MBA programme will not work.


The overall assumptions could be redrafted in the following lines:

• The management education should be able to prepare the students with all round skills and knowledge to manage diverse situations and industry challenges in the highly competitive and dynamic markets.
• Management education should be oriented towards providing communication, soft skills and high standards of ethics and value system to prepare the students for a globalised world
• Management education should be imparted with intense classroom teaching, research orientation, practical experience based on on campus simulation and off campus exposure, involvement of industry experts and other distinguished faculty from other peer institutions from India and abroad.
• The orientation of the MBA education should be towards building leadership quality in students based on team working, ethics, social commitment and good governance.
• MBA education should be highly technology oriented to facilitate the students to understand practical use of competing technologies and the impact of Internet, telecommunications on the lives of everyone.
  
  1.3 model curriculum
  
  Model curriculum should include
  
  knowledge management, information management and Internet use
  Customer management, retail marketing, networking
  supply chain management, industrial management, international financial and trade flows
  E-commerce using Internet, mobiles, handheld devices
  Globalisation, Global compliance, WTO, social clause
  Policy management, politics and cyber law
  Impact of markets, financial sector on business prospects besides the usual marketing, finance, OB, business environment, law
  
  All the above subjects should account for at least 60 per cent of the total MBA curriculum with another 20 per cent allowed for new subject experiments within the broader framework of MBA. The remaining 20 per cent should be devoted to live projects, summer projects etc., of which at least 5 per cent should be allocated for a synapsis by the MBA student
  
  
  Why a MBA Synapsis: The idea behind a synapsis by a MBA student should be to encourage research orientation to the students as after all industry is based on research and such orientation would greatly help in building a great career for the MBA students.
  
  It would also add to the repertoire of research and possibility also lead to publications for the b-school concerned. It will also provide a rich source of case material for the school.
  
  The synapsis should be based on a contemporary subject and the student should be encouraged to publish the research report and also take up a viva voce to defend his case.

2.0 programme structure

This would be modified to reflect the changes proposed in section 1.2 .However, overall the idea the students should be given a reasonable orientation in mathematics and statistics is an exemplary one and need not be changed.

2.1 and 3.0

there should be no rigidity in proposing 12 courses per year or the 1200 to 1400 hours exposure and this should be best left to the schools concerned as there is an increasing trend for specialization catering to one segment of industry or the other—for example retail oriented schools are coming up, so also finance oriented schools, supply chain oriented school, technology management oriented schools and so on.

A minimum number of class room contact could be suggested say 800 hours leaving the upper limit open to the schools.

Likewise the core courses should redefined to impart the basic skills of finance, marketing, communication, statistical skills, decision making skills, awareness of business environment, industrial relations, business law etc., and this package should be made compulsory to the schools and a minimum number of hours should be prescribed for each subject rather than fixing 20 hour or 30 hour per course. Communication for instance should be taught for more than 100 hours throughout the two year period. Likewise business environment could be taught in two classes or three hours but its practical orientation should be through the entire course period and as such the students should be periodically tested for their awareness about business environment.


Three year prescription for executive MBA should be removed and a flexible fast track approach should be suggested where an executive on a sabbatical should be able to complete the course in one year while another set could take more than three years based on classroom contacts.

One year MBA should be actively encouraged for working executives with more than three years of experience and who are willing to take sabbatical of one year or a break in career.


4.0 Entry qualification is an area which require tremendous reforms.

the entry test system allowing multiple tests should be replaced by a single national test available throughout the year and administered by an independent testing house should be introduced.
Such a test should be continuously updated by an open source method with a core team controlling the quality in a transparent manner
The schools should be permitted to use the test scores for at least two years after the test is given and the results of such test should constitute not more than 50 epr cent of the admission eligibility criteria with the rest 50 per cent divided between acadmic scores, and academic consistency, personal interview, group discussion, essay, publishing record of the student, corporate experience etc.,
Even the universities should be accepting the common national admission test score and there should be strictly no other admission test allowed by any institution.
Application for admission to any institution should be given free of cost or only on cost basis and the student should not be burdened with the cost of colourful brochures etc.,by the school. Complete details relating to the school should be available in their websites which should be notified to the students.
the schools should be encouraged not to invite more than twice the number of students than there are seats for the admission interview and the final selection information should be available in the website transparently for anyone to scrutinize the results.

The spirit behind the admission procedure is to help the institutions to identify and shortlist candidates based on their qualifications, experience and suitability to pursue the MBA course with least expenses and inconvenience to the student community.

The 2 lakh plus applications for CAT is not a reflection of the quality of the IIMs but poor governance of the admission procedure which is making lakhs of people despondent in seeking admission in vain and making them spend needlessly. IIMs earn a huge sum as a result and even assuming they spend the entire amount in the conduct of the exams the entire exercise is unwarranted and wasteful of public money and time. \

5.0 Intake of the students

While the 60 student per batch should be accepted as a practical time tested suggestion, its scientific validity should be proved through empirical and causative research on the ground.

This apart there is no need to place any capacity restriction on the size of the batch or the overall admission of students except that there should be suitable infrastructure, faculty numbers and other facilities for smooth conduct of MBAcourse. The current artificial cap on MBA capacity is retrograde and it should be withdrawn and the market forces shoudlbe allowed to decide the capacity.

Accreditation should be fine tuned to keep a strict vigilance on the quality of the courses and the way these are being conducted. More public accredited bodies within the ambit of the national regulator AICTEshould be encouraged to keep the MBA quality the highest and suited to the industry needs.

6.0 Examination norms

While the structure of the exams may be conducive and even the evaluation procedure may be time tested that the evaluation is being done by the school without any verification or supervision by an outside source is undermine the quality of such evaluation.
To elaborate, while the Universities conduct the examination for the courses being conducted in its affiliated colleges ensuring uniformity and quality, all autonomous colleges conduct their own tests and evaluate these on their own. A peer review process should be evolved to allow an outside preview of the evaluation to decide on quality of such evaluation.



Infrastrcuture

There should be no minimum criteria for the infrastructure in terms of land, build except that the overall definition of the ideal size required in relation to the number of students should be maintained since we are advocating that there should be no cap on the student admissions

Also ownership of land and also the building is retrograde step except that the authority could insist on long term lease aand other proof of consistency and legitimacy to conduct the classes. This is on the premises that the job of infrastructure provision is not the business of businesses of any kind while they should be concerned with their core business. Incidentally if the business feels that it should have its own factory or building it will go ahead and build. Why should be otherwise in the case of a business school?

Faculty

Faculty qualification should not be the sole criteria of determining faculty quality or adequacy as this leaves out people with industry experience or expertise in the world which is increasingly getting specialized. The sectoral management schools would be using faculty from industry with no phd qualification.
However long term viability of an education enterprise cannot be based on such visiting faculty or also on faculty with less qualification. There should be a healthy blend of faculty with phd and also those with lesser qualifications but with more industry exposure.

Also remuneration should be left to market forces and the AICTE or MHRD can issue from time to time advice based on research by industry associations like national HRD network on faculty compensation.



Ends

Thothathri Raman