Why is ISB ranked 20th in FT Global MBA

The recent news that ISB is ranked 20th worldwide in the FT Global MBA rankings has invited a lot of opinions, objections and praises. Although I personally feel that getting this ranking is definitely good for ISB as the first thing ISB needs to be acknowledged in the global arena is exposure, and rankings is a definite way to achieve it. I do have some points to talk in favour of and discussions on some of the doubts that people might have.

Understanding the criteria
Every ranking institution follow a different criteria to compile the rankings, a fact every individual must understand before deciding whether a B-school deserved the particular ranking or not. I am not concluding anything here, but merely going over the facts. By going through the FT methodology, we see that “Weighted salary (US$)” and “Salary percentage increase” contribute 40 per cent of the rank for each school. This data is collected for the last three years beginning with the batch of 2004.

ISB has beaten the league US-Schools
Well, it comes as a big surprise that ISB is ranked above league schools, he likes of Kellogg, Duke, Anderson, Darden. Again, if you consider the salary percentage increase, it is understandable since the salaries of the above schools are more or less constant over the years and since ISB is gaining more corporate exposure with each coming year, the salaries have been rising at a fast pace. To add to that, the dollar has fallen considerable last year and if you adjust the salaries to PPP, the increase would be a lot.

I am not undermining the potential that ISB has, but I am just stating my personal analysis to acknowledge the position ISB has achieved.

ISB still needs to catch up on student diversity in nationality. Then why?
I agree to the fact that as compared to all other schools, ISB scores the lowest in terms of diversity. International students form only 5% of the batch as per the data, which is too low. But come to think of it, how will international students get to know that a school called ISB exist if it is not in the rankings. You ask yourself, will you apply to a US school which is not even there in the rankings? I won't, even if I have heard a lot of good things through word of mouth. I would like to know where it stands as compared to other schools. So exposure is the first thing required by ISB to attract foreign students, and the first way to get exposure is the rankings.

Why not IIMs?
Again, I do not want to undermine the fact that on some parameters, the IIMs score much above ISB, like Alumni base to talk about. But here we are comparing apples and oranges. IIMs cater to a different set of candidates. It is a totally different debate and I plan to write a new article on this argument. Promise.

Consequences
There certainly will be increase in the number of applications in the coming years, as if the current competition was not enough. :) No seriously, the rankings will attract more students and definitely more from foreign shores. Apart from that, I think this ranking is a major global reputation booster for ISB and would impact its placements in a positive manner.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey ! I had written a similar article (and many more actually) but since I bought a domain name and have to shift my blog on the same... it'll take sometime b4 the entire blog is updated. SO what happend to ur admission to ISB...? Or R u in a B-School already.?? thanks for visiting www.arnav.bookrum.com

Alchemist said...

Hi "The Teacher"

Nice Article....But I would like to point out some facts
I am a ISB Alum, and it feels gr8, when somebody says ISB has achieved FT20, or more recently FT15 ranking...
However, as per your article, I fail to understand the following:

1. IVY League Comparison: U acknowledge that ISB has made it, becoz it being a new school, had a huge increase in its weighted average salary, whereas the Ivy league are stable, as they have been thr for a long time. So, that brings us to the fact, does ISB deserve this?...or more interstingly, does it deserve a place above Kellogg
An Analogy would be u put Joginder Sharma, In Indian Cricket, above Sachin Tendulkar, becoz Joginder has increased his batting average from 5 to 50, ans Sachin has been at average 55

2. ISB still needs to catch up on student diversity in nationality. Then why?: I ask the same question...Why...The rankings should reflect the performance and not potential
Further, an institution should not get a better rankig, becoz it needs to attract Foreign Students...In that case, why ISB, which has 5%...Why not give "XYZ" school of Business, in "ABC" village, Jharkhand, which has only ppl from "ABC" village

3. Why Not IIM's? : Is this relevant to the discussion...I thought the discussion is on Why ISB, deserves a FT20 ranking, and comparison with IIM is another discussion

Consequences:

ISB is a gr8 school 2 study in, and I am proud of being one of the alums...however, we should not close our eyes to the facts, and go gaga obver the FT20 ranking...

i hope i have not hurt ur feelings...just an opinion mate

Alchemist

Dan ThroughMBA said...

ISB reached there in first 6 years of operations.

What more can anybody ask for.

ThroughMBA