B-schools plan variable pay for foreign tag

The lure of foreign accreditation has made Indian business schools go for more research, thanks to the research-linked incentives that they will get. Many management schools have developed a system for faculty salary which includes variable components based on performance.

Most Indian B-schools are opting for three kinds of global accreditation ? London-based Association of MBAs (AMBA), the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) and the American Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Consider this: Ghaziabad-based Institute of Management Technology (IMT) plans to introduce a financial bonus for its faculty over and above their salaries from this year onwards. This bonus incentive will be based on rigorous performance appraisal on the basis of the faculty’s intellectual contribution in terms of quality of research productivity, pedagogical innovations and academic entrepreneurship. This is so because the institute is vying for AACSB certification which it expects to get by 2015.

?We are in the process of introducing this system this year and the best performers will get up to 50% of their annual CTC as bonus pay. We want to genuinely incentivise quality in everything we do, and hence are offering reasonably reduced teaching load to the faculty and giving them space to be more productive in research. The introduction of this performance-based variable pay is extremely important as we are pursuing multiple prestigious international accreditation,? said Bibek Banerjee, director, IMT-Ghaziabad.

Same is the case with Mumbai-based Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), which has applied for two foreign accreditation and is in the process of changing its faculty salary structure. ?Till now, we used to reward our faculty based on their experience and competencies but the new system will take into account their performance and contribution to research,? said NMIMS’ vice-chancellor Rajan Saxena.

These recognitions are awarded on the basis of various criteria like facilities, teaching faculty and standards, alumni and research, and hence, Indian B-schools are preparing to ramp up their publications in international journals. It takes anywhere between 3-5 years for institutes to get accredited.

At present, four B-schools in the country have AMBA accreditation, two are EQUIS-accredited and another two are AACSB-recognised.

In fact, Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business became the first business school in South Asia to get accredited by AACSB last year.

Accreditation by AACSB has been earned by less than 5% of the world’s business schools as the process includes rigorous self-evaluation and peer-review elements.

Increased research would mean lesser teaching hours and the institutes are all set to increase their faculty strength. IMT-Ghaziabad has 55 permanent faculty, which it aims to increase to 80.

?We don’t have any performance-based faculty salary at present but in the next few years we will take into account teaching, research and intellectual investment of the faculty. This will be crucial in getting foreign recognitions,? said H Chaturvedi, director, BIMTech.

The institute has already started rewarding its faculty on the basis of getting their papers published in reputed international journals and is vying for Belgium-based EQUIS accreditation.