Updated on: Wednesday, December 26, 2012
It is students from IIM-Bangalore, not from Harvard or Stanford or even MIT, who excel at GMAT, the entrance test for the creme de la creme of B-schools across the world.
According to the QS Global 200 Business Schools report, Indian MBA candidates are the world's most academically distinguished, with students of the IIM-B, scoring the highest average of 780. IIM-B students are ahead of the leading US institution Stanford and INSEAD in Europe, the survey said.
While the average GMAT score of Stanford is 730, INSEAD lies at 704. Second to IIM-B students in GMAT score are their counterparts from IIM, Ahmedabad with 767.
The survey says, "IIM Ahmedabad is notable for the extraordinarily high average GMAT scores of its students, with its figure of 767 exceeded only by fellow Indian institution, IIM Bangalore (780). This places the two ahead of any North American or European school for the academic quality of their student intake. The fact that students enrolled at both schools have an average of just two years of professional experience underlines the tendency for academically gifted students to move quickly on to the MBA qualification at the outset of their careers, rather than using it to up-skill at mid career, as is more common in Europe and North America."
IIM-B also appears in the survey as one of the emerging global business schools across the world, overtaking Melbourne Business School.
T V Mohandas Pai, chairman, Manipal Global Education Services, said, "It is the testimony to high quality talent that our country has. It is no surprise that Indian students have outscored others from across the globe. What is needed now is the establishment of premier institutes like Harvard and Stanford in India as well, so that these young minds could express their intelligence in best possible manner. This is possible only when full autonomy is provided to the universities."
"At the time of independence, our universities at Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta, Mysore and Baroda were among the top 200 in the world. Today, they do not fare in any ranking at all. This is the result of bad government policy. Full autonomy, independent board of governors and focus on research are the factors crucial for a good university," said Pai.
The colleges were also judged on different subjects under their programme. In corporate social responsibility, IIM-B ranked 21 among the top 50 business colleges across the globe, whereas IIM-A grabbed 19th rank.
When it comes to emphasis on start-ups and small businesses to kick-start private sector growth ( entrepreneurship), IIM-B ranked 25 and IIM-A ranked 17. Under 'innovation', IIM-B was placed at 17th with a score of 90.6, whereas IIM-A ranked 13, with a score of 97.4 out of 100.
QS is an online and offline meeting place for aspiring managers, B-schools and businesses for career and educational -related decisions.
For the leadership development programme, four colleges from India feature among top 50 universities. They are: IIM-A, IIM-B, IIM-C and Indian School of Business (ISB).
Schools ranked for employer reputation in 10 subject specializations. Harvard tops the table in three subjects, ahead of Stanford and MIT with two apiece. Wharton is number one for finance