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It is incontestable that the largest recruiters of business graduates are obviously business entities. And, as "consumers", business and their associations have a much larger stake in the quality of business education in India than AICTE or the Ministry of
HRD. It is, therefore, clear that organizations like CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM are the entities who should be the arbiters to determine the quality of business schools in the country. There could be a regulatory entity primarily promoted by these associations to oversee the quality of business education in the country and to bring forth periodically such changes as are required to reflect the changing business environment.

AICTE should leave business education in the country alone. The industry associations and the market will ensure that those schools which deliver quality management education are rewarded and those which fall short punished.

I also wish to highlight another issue which, in fact, may be prevailing in most contexts in the country where discretionary powers vest with small groups of people who oversee or monitor or approve any activity, be it in the public or private sector. Economists call them "rent-seekers". There are several instances of lack of probity among AICTE teams who visit private, self-financing institutions, both engineering and business management programmes, to assess their eligibility for approval. But then, why single out AICTE teams alone? They are a microcosm of the Indian society; after all, it is not for nothing that we have been 'earning' very low score for transparency globally!

The irony is that AICTE's moronic rules are to protect the students from unscrupulous people who promote colleges purely as business propositions and to keep the facilities and other offerings updated. Under the existing scheme of things, nothing of the kind happens. The students, in fact, are the victims of a double whammy: those who want to screw the system do it anyway (and thereby, shortchanging the students) and those who are committed to set up world-class schools are intimidated (if not disallowed) by the mindless rules and regulations.

For Engineering Colleges, AICTE approval is mandatory whereas the Business Schools appear to be in a 'no-man's-land'. No one is certain, despite the annual ritual of threatening dire consequences by AICTE, whether those schools which offer PGPM without seeking approval of AICTE, or affiliation with a University, or offering only one-year diploma programmes can be legally disabled. This explains how fine institutions like ISB, Hyderabad (the only business school ranked among the 50 best in the world) and GLIM (Great Lakes Institute of Management), Chennai got established without having to follow the outdated university curriculum or processes. Both may have received show-cause notices from AICTE why action should not be taken to close down their facilities!

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* Contributed by: -
V. S. M. Nair is a management professional with over 35 years of experience across several institutions in the country. He has had some exposure to the process of selection of management graduates as well as management education in the country.