IIM Calcutta Revels in AACSB Accreditation: MBA News

IIM Calcutta is the oldest Indian Institute of Management and is now the first to receive AACSB accreditation.

Although AACSB accreditation is held by 716 institutions across 48 countries it can only be achieved after a lengthy period of assessment – and in IIM Calcutta’s case, this process has been ongoing for the past five years.

Saibal Chattopadhyay, director at IIM Calcutta described the achievement of gaining AACSB accreditation as “a major breakthrough.” It follows the approval of AMBA – another of the three ‘triple crown’ international accreditation bodies - earlier this year.

“We all like to be a global player, to have international faculty and students and with this accreditation we will be a part of the top international network of B-schools. With the stringent parameters laid down by AACSB, we have gone through a five year journey of continuous improvement in a holistic manner which has had a positive impact on several aspects of the institute,” Chattopadhyay added.

Only two other schools in India have previously received AACSB accreditation, the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and Bangalore’s TA Pai Management Institute (TAPMI).

Summer internships leading to more job offers

In further good news for IIM Calcutta, the effectiveness of summer internships in securing job offers for the school’s students seems to be on the rise.

As of August, 58 of its class of 2015 – termed ‘batch of 2013-15’ at IIM Calcutta – had received job offers (or pre-placement offers, PPO) following their summer internships, with a further 20 securing interviews. The numbers were a 34% increase on the equivalent figures this time last year.

“Companies seem to be realizing the importance of [the] summer internship program and are hiring more through the PPO route,” said Rajiv Kumar, placement chairperson at IIM Calcutta.

Multinational consultancy firms accounted for 24 of these early job offers, of which 15 were made by McKinsey & Co and The Boston Consulting Group. A T Kearney, meanwhile, made offers to each of the IIM Calcutta students that took on summer internships with the company.

Other companies making job offers on the back of successful summer internships included Pepsi, Philips and Alshaya, a retail franchise operator based in the Middle East, which made eight job offers to IIM Calcutta students.

IIM Calcutta’s AACSB accreditation was included in the organization’s latest round of announcements, which also brought news of a first award from any of the three ‘triple crown’ accrediting bodies to a school in Ecuador, ESPAE Graduate School of Management, as well as to Taiwan’s National Central University. It also saw Newcastle University Business School earn triple-accreditation and become one of 20 schools based in the UK that currently enjoy this distinction. 

“The triple crown is the gold standard in business education and we are delighted to receive this international recognition from AACSB,” said John Wilson, director of Newcastle University Business School.