The NHRDN-People Matters B-school Rankings, the first such survey by a professional body, will be the most credible and reliable ranking from the employer’s point of view, says Kamal Singh, Director General, NHRDN

Despite around 20 B-school rankings floating in the market, the industry has still not found an answer to their annual campus placement woes. On the other hand, aspiring MBA students are getting misled due to the absence of reliable information.

To resolve this, NHRDN and People Matters decided to come up with a B-School ranking that will be more transparent and reliable. And we want this to be the reference point for industry as well as parents and students seeking admission to the top 50 B-schools in the years to come.

How is this ranking different?

This is the first ever survey being done by a professional body. So far, B-school rankings have been done by magazines, television channels, etc. Hence, there is business dimension to it which the B-schools can leverage to their advantage. I have been told that many B-schools get the rankings manipulated by giving advertisements. To the coveted top rankings, one way is to perform well. The other way is to pay for it and get it overnight – but that won’t work in the long term. The credibility of the currently available rankings is already being questioned because many B-schools have not been able to get the desired number of students despite their high ranking.

The NHRDN ranking is based on concrete data. We are visiting the schools and physically collecting and validating data. Hence, the scope for misrepresentation of data is minimised. The validating team comprises a person from industry who will represent NHRDN, along with the rating agency. For NHRDN, the ratings are not a money-making endeavour. Instead, our objective is to provide reliable information to the stakeholders. We have also constituted an advisory committee that will be advising us on how to make the process more credible and transparent.

The process

We sent an invite to the business schools, asking them to confirm that they are willing to participate. Based on that confirmation, we send them a questionnaire. The questionnaire enables them to provide data with respect to various aspects of the rating. We then depute a team comprising representatives from the industry and the rating agency to visit the institution and validate the data they had provided. In the final stage, we will evaluate the data and present it to the advisory committee and the jury for final validation and moderation.

We have received confirmations for participation from 35 B-schools, and more are in offing. Out of the 35, we have completed the data validation process for five business schools. Next week we are covering five more, and so on. By the end of February, we will have completed the process.

What’s in it for the employers?

At present, the employer is confused since there are several rankings. Our ranking is based on five evaluation criteria which are very comprehensive: academic leadership, infrastructural leadership, intellectual leadership, internal governance processes, and student engagement programs. The NHRDN ranking will empower employers with data that is credible, reliable and transparent. I have no doubt that this would be the most preferred rating in the years to come.

(As told to Deepshikha Thakur)