For the millions of business management aspirants each year, a good MBA college is a tough nut to crack. For the hundreds of B-schools out there in the country, to stay afloat among the top rankers, is an even tougher job.
As per the London-based business newspaper Financial Times World MBA Ranking 2022, the Indian School of Business (ISB Hyderabad) seems to have perfected the art of staying right on top. Ranked 32, ISB Hyderabad has emerged as the top B-school in India beating the likes of IIMs, three of which featured in the top 70 best MBA colleges in the world. Indian Institute of Management Bangalore secured 53rd position, while IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta have been ranked 62 and 68 respectively. ISB though slipped several positions from its last year's ranking of 23rd.
Speaking of single digit ranks, they have been secured by Wharton School which came first, followed by Columbia which has been ranked second. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Business School even beat the likes of Harvard, Northwestern, Kellogg, Stanford, Chicago: Booth, Yale, MIT, NYU: Stern and Berkeley: Haas---which were all among 16 schools in the top tier of the 100 ranked institutions.
US dominates, yet again
It's an accepted fact that most of the Ivy League colleges and other US colleges remain the top rankers, especially in business management education. Regardless of the agency surveying, the first fifteen slots are usually reserved by Wharton, Columbia, Kellogg, Harvard and other universities and schools. High packages and salaries for American business graduates is what largely helped US business schools secure top places in this year's survey too.
Talking of salaries, the average overall salary for the alumni of the 100 ranked schools was $161,000, once adjusted for purchasing power parity around the world. The number one ranker The Wharton School reported the highest overall average annual income in 2021 at $238,000. This is after removing the salaries of those going into lower-paid areas of work, for example, the public sector.
The criteria for ranking
It must be noted that for the ranking, alumni from the PGP Class of 2018 were surveyed. ISB Hyderabad was ranked at number one globally when it came one of the criteria of 'Salary Percentage Increase'. There is yet another feather in the institute's cap. 38 per cent of the female students in the surveyed class is the highest number compared with other FT 2022 ranked schools in India.
The rankings are based on surveys of business schools and their alumni. The B-schools are assessed on the basis of the programmes they offer, the value addition of each programme. How much did the programme result in career progression of the alumni, the school's idea generation and the diversity of students and faculty. The ranking, though not exhaustive but is quite elaborate and features the world's best 100 full-time global B-schools. As per Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2021, Indian School of Business ranked at number 23 last year.
Why only four Indian B-schools?
FT has placed only four Indian schools in the rankings. However, last year in 2021, five Indian B-schools had made the cut. IIM Indore has been dropped from the list altogether this year.
The schools to have made it this year are:
Indian School of Business (Hyderabad)
Indian Institutes of Management (Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Calcutta)
IIMs are old rankers in the survey and considering they all dipped a few positions from the last year's rankings calls for some reflection. One of the prominent reason being given by the industry experts are the two important criteria of the survey, first being the international course experience and second the career advancement. Both of these have been severely affected by the pandemic and the resultant restrictions it posed.
