The Methodology of the Open-SMRS B-School Ranking

THERE HAS BEEN A SHARP DECLINE in the number of India’s B-Schools over the last decade. The number plummeted from 3,878 in 2012-13 to 3,153 in 2022-23, a fall of 19 per cent. Additionally, business education in India hap­pens to be extremely complicated because of the MBA and PGDM nomenclature. The former suggests that it has to be affiliated with a university but the latter needs affiliation with AICTE. There is one more body, AIU (Association of Indian Universities), which attests the PGDM course is the equivalent of an MBA.

Although two years ago AICTE directed B-Schools to stick to either MBA or PGDM, there are institutions that are now offering both MBA and PGDM on the same campus. Given so much ambiguity, the Open-SMRS B-School ranking makes things easier for aspirants who want to pursue a business education in India. This year’s tables will open avenues for students to take ad­mission decisions based on an empirical data-driven ranking of B-Schools. Sticking to its principle of inclusivity, Open-SMRS’ Best B-Schools have ranked 351 B-Schools offering business edu­cation in India. Additionally, the ranking has also segregated B-Schools on the basis of status—top B-Schools under Private Universi­ties and top Standalone/Affiliated Private B-Schools.

The ranking procedure took off with secondary re­search to prepare a comprehensive list of B-Schools where at least two batches had completed their terms by 2022. A factual survey form was prepared to take all relevant data from the B-Schools. All eligible B-Schools were invited to participate in the survey. A dedicated team under the direct supervision of senior researchers was deputed to collate data from each of the B-Schools.

A separate perceptual survey was also carried out among key stakeholders, such as faculty, current MBA students, and industry professionals. While selecting the faculty and indus­try professionals, their experience was given more weight­age—only those with more than five years of experience in their respective areas were recruited for the survey.

For this research, SMRS interviewed 1,116 respondents, including 450 faculty, 462 students and 204 industry profes­sionals across 23 cities of India—Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Farid­abad, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Noida, Ranchi, Pune and Raipur. Cities were selected ensuring proper representation of all zones of the country. The respondents were asked to nominate and rate top B-Schools in India within their zone on five important parameters criti­cal to judging the excellence of B-Schools—1. Legacy, Accredita­tion and Selection Process; 2. Ped­agogy and Research Brilliance; 3. Infrastructure and Campus facilities; 4. Global Exposure and Personality Development; and 5. Placement and Career Growth. The results of the survey yielded a 95 per cent confidence interval, which gives a maximum ±2.934 per cent margin of error. A quali­tative discussion was also done with the respondents to find out the top B-Schools in their city. Faculty and students’ responses about their B-Schools were ignored while arriving at the final score. OLS regression model was used to arrive at the importance of key parameters which were further examined by experts from academia and industry.

While a great degree of effort was made to ensure maxi­mum participation of B-Schools with their factual data, the numbers are not enough to conclude a robust ranking list. Therefore, to give a realistic and more inclusive list, B-Schools were analysed and ranked based on the percep­tual survey data. The survey was executed from September to November 2022.

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