In the West, most top management institutions are business schools of a university – Booth School of Business (University of Chicago), Harvard Business School (Harvard University), Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) and Haas School of Business (University of California Berkeley). But in India, top management schools are standalone institutes – IIMs, ISB, XLRI, etc.
“With multidisciplinary education taking centre-stage, the next wave of top B-schools will come from university campuses,” says Bibek Banerjee, Dean, School of Management and Entrepreneurship (SME), Shiv Nadar University. In an interview with FE’s Vikram Chaudhary, he adds that a university-based B-school provides both depth and breadth of discipline, which a standalone B-school may not be able to provide. Excerpts:
Why are top B-schools in India outside the traditional university ecosystem?
Right after Independence when we were building India, we needed good technical institutes – in medicine, engineering and management – and that demanded a singular, dedicated focus. Thus came up AIIMS, IITs, IIMs and so on.
Traditional universities, on the other hand, focused on educating the masses in humanities, social sciences, sciences, economics, and offering programmes such as BA, BSc, MA, MSc, PhD, etc.
But now I believe education is getting multidisciplinary, including technical education. That’s why B-schools on university campuses are getting better, including the one I head – SME at Shiv Nadar University.
So, a university-based B-school is getting as good as an IIM … In other words, can a student choose an SME over an MDI Gurgaon or an IIM Lucknow?
That depends on the student, but I’ll tell you where the SME has an advantage.
Today, entrepreneurship is happening in every area. Let’s say a student wants to build a business or career in music, creative arts or healthcare. At a standalone B-school, she will have access to the best of the case studies in these areas. At the SME, in addition, she will have access to schools of music, creative arts or healthcare in the next building. They can not only take classes there, but even partner with faculty on their next research project.
A university provides both depth and breadth of discipline, which a standalone B-school may not be able to provide.
What is the profile of the student who is getting into the SME?
Over the last few decades, we have created a mechanism of rejection instead of acceptance. For example, 200,000 aspirants taking the JEE and 90% of those are rejected. At Shiv Nadar, we focus on acceptance. We take students from CAT, but also those who have taken GRE or GMAT – on a bad day, someone may not have scored well in CAT, but could have rocked in GMAT another day.
The average CAT percentile of students we selected last year was 80, but more than that we focus on interviews, where we sit with them for over an hour.
Why is your batch size limited to 60?
We are a fully residential school – located on the fringes of Delhi – and so we can take only as many students as we can accommodate in our hostels. But a limited batch size ensures our students get quality attention from the faculty.
Do you also run a bachelor’s degree, like a BBA?
We do, but we call it BMS (Bachelor of Management Studies), which I believe is one of the best undergraduate management programmes in the country.
What are your placements like?
Last year, the median of our MBA students was Rs 11 lakh. The median of the top 50% of the class was Rs 15 lakh, and the highest salary was Rs 24 lakh. Where we stand out is our fees, which is just Rs 14 lakh, as opposed to most standalone B-schools that charge far more.
Last year, our students got placed in top firms like Deloitte, American Express, EY, and others.
Is your location (on the fringes of a city) a challenge in attracting recruiters?
Not really, but we don’t want to take a chance and that’s why we go to companies with our students, and their placement interviews happen at a place convenient to recruiters.