Director: Daniel C. Levy
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Director: Daniel C. Levy |
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PROPHE Summary (Prachayani Praphamontripong): Founded by elite businessman and governed by elite groups from business and academic worldwide, the Indian School of Business (ISB), a six-year-old private higher education institution, is a striking example of newly defined business school in India. Rationales for the ISB's establishment are; 1) that Indian public higher education institutions are short of seats to meet the country's demand for professional courses in engineering, management, and medicine; 2) that most private institutions are poorly qualified, focusing on tuition fees instead of faculty's qualification; and 3) that prospective employers complain about the limited supply of well-trained graduates. The ISB highlights distinctive characteristics including many management programs offered in an intensive one-year period and modern facilities with high technology across its infrastructure. Its main highlight is, indeed, its academic partnerships with elite business schools from aboard, i.e., University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and the University of London, which supply foreign faculty members as part-time visiting scholars to conduct a six-week course for the school. Due to such unique features, the ISB is regarded as the answer to Harvard Business School for its popularity in having the largest number of GMAT candidates in India sending their scores to the school, and for its producing some of the highest-paid graduates. Nonetheless, the school is facing several obstacles. Its very high tuition discourages prospective students as the school charges tuition four or more times higher than the most elite Indian business schools. Moreover, its graduate programs are not truly degree programs due to its refusal of government recognition. Furthermore, its eighty percent of faculty members with part-time status indicates the school's inadequacy to strengthen its research programs as a key for international accreditation, which the ISB seeks. To obtain such a global recognition, the school will clearly alter its full- to part-time ratio and has started "centers of excellence" financed by donors and companies in order to recruit more full-time faculty members and undertake all research focusing on emerging markets. In addition, the ISB is confident that it can build an ample endowment, without government support, through its top executives and companies representing on the board in 15 years. For the full story (shown with permission) see the Chronicle of Higher
Education, September 29, 2006, "In India, Redefining the Business
School: A new institute takes a different approach and comes out ahead,"
by Shailaja Neelakantan. PROPHE Observation (Daniel C. Levy): Starkly contrasting to the Indian private sector's bulk of demand-absorbing institutions, the ISB is a striking example of new private higher education where academic-excellence focus and a lump sum of funding miraculously make things happened. It illustrates several salient characteristics of new elite (in aspiration) or semi-elite private institutions through its very high tuition fees and modern high technology infrastructure. Indeed, the school's vision of elite standing is reflected in its alliances with elite business schools from aboard, which highlights a global trend in institutional partnership and cross-boarder higher education. Such arrangements bring diversity to the higher education system. Moreover, this new private subsector may bring about the increasing
ambiguity between private and public sector due to its cross-boarder
partnerships with both public and private institutions. It is also interesting
that international recognition is ambitiously sought whereas government's
recognition is denied. This challenges the Indian government to ask
themselves whether regulations are still meaningful or already devalued,
and why so. The government might need to exercise discretion on their
policy and regulation implementation if there are likely to be more
institutions emanating the ISB. Meanwhile, the ISB faces its own challenges:
to achieve academic elite status and to manage that without undue reliance
on foreign faculty and partnerships. As we know from analysis of many
countries, building academic elite status is difficult and represents
a rare achievement in the private higher education sector.
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