India has a challenging Management education scenario

Updated on: Monday, June 18, 2012

The need for business schools in developing nations to impart relevant education to students has become imperative as management education has a vital role to play in today's business environment, where everything changes so fast that it makes it difficult for organisations to survive the growing competition. Also, schools need to be in close contact with industry.

According to Steven Dekrey, senior associate dean, Hong Kong University of Sciences and Technology, businesses in Asia are in need for management talent. "New challenges require new business models," said Dekrey. He was participating in the 7annual conference of the Global Business School Network (GBSN), held in the Capital last week. Also, "it is very important for business schools to work with exceptional leaders, who are educated, successful, inspirational, encouraging and who are willing to give back to community," he added.

Delegates from international business schools, industry and development professionals came together to discuss the issue of shortage of management talent in the developing world. The theme of the conference was 'Making the Connection: Management Education Powering Development.'

Talking about the challenges in Africa, Enase Okonedo, dean, Lagos Business School and director, Association of African Business Schools, Nigeria, said, "We need more business schools, qualified managers, dynamic curriculum and qualified faculty."

The business education scenario in India is equally challenging. According to Pankaj Chandra, director, IIM-Bangalore, there are close to 3,000 management schools in India, but not all are able to provide quality education. They may improve in terms of providing quality education over a period of time, but those who fail would have to shut down. However, as far as research is concerned, Chandra added, "India is a research paradise, where students from all around the world can come and do fabulous research work. There's no dearth of resources for research here and the country provides an exciting environment too, where research topics are taken live from the industry."

The rising cost of management education is another concern for developing countries. Okonedo said, "It is difficult to keep the cost low as business is very expensive. However, we have brought down the cost of purchasing case studies and copyrights." For India, Chandra suggested making use of hybrid models, using the internet and face-to-face methodology could cut costs.

The impact of a business school, according to Dekrey, can be measured by reputation, quality of the faculty, student placements and rankings. "It is very important for an institution to know where its students have gone and what are they doing to make an impact."

The GBSN annual conference was hosted for the first time in India in partnership with the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad.

India has a challenging Management education scenario

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