Curricula at business schools has not kept pace with the rapidly changing character of the Indian economy, said Mr B. Bhattacharyya, Vice-Chairman, IILM Institute of Higher Education.
“B-school curricula remain fixed on their domestic orientation. IIM-C, IIM-K and ISB have only one core paper on globalisation issues. The rest have none,” said Mr Bhattacharyya. He was speaking at the National Research Conference on Globalising India — Role of B-Schools organised by the All India Management Association.
When the B-Schools do offer a course on international issues in certain areas, it seems more as a gesture than as a matter of substantive reorientation, Mr Bhattacharyya said.
The failure of B-Schools lies in their intellectual inability to understand the conditions under which the results of academic research are transferable to real-world applications, he added.
Wide Gap
The global financial disaster has brought the issue of gap in curriculum to the fore. “Should not B-Schools dig deeper into the implications and causes of the meltdown?” he asked, giving the example of the theory of market derivatives.
Further, Mr Bhattacharyya said there is a decline in number of applicants to the B-Schools over the past few years due to high costs, stagnation in entry level salaries at campus recruitments and longer pay back periods for students who take loans to fund the degree.
B-Schools would have to figure out how to survive as financially viable and intellectually sound institutions and get ready for that eventuality for survival, Mr Bhattacharyya added.
Setting up of a National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) would change the Indian education system, said Mr Narendra Jadhav, Member National Advisory Council and Member Planning Commission, speaking at the conference.
“Within two years, various bills in the education sector including compulsory accreditation, bill for prevention of malpractices in engineering and medical institutions and bill for foreign education providers will bring in a metamorphic change in the entire education system,” he added.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.