India’s Business School Faculty Crisis

TopMBA.com looks at why business schools in India are facing a faculty crisis despite academics of Indian origin doing well in the west. 

While academics of Indian origin such as Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria, and Chicago Booth Dean Sunil Kumar are scaling the professional ladder in the west, business schools within India are struggling to find the same caliber of talent to fill faculty positions.

India’s higher education sector is plagued by a severe shortage of teaching staff and with an increase in the number of business schools over the last couple of years, this situation has been further aggravated.

There are currently 2,000 business schools in India, 1,600 of which are accredited by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), a statutory body regulating technical education in the country.

India’s top institutions, such as the centrally-funded Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management have reported a 25% shortage in faculty.

The urgency of the situation has led the Central government to form three review committees to address issues relating to the growth of the IIMs such as governance, faculty and funding.

Rooting for research

In order to counter the faculty shortage, business schools in India have been strengthening their doctoral programs and encouraging more students to take up research. According to the National Knowledge Commission, the growth in higher education in India has not been accompanied by an equivalent growth in doctoral students.

“The declining quality of research work and deteriorating research standards and infrastructure in the country are a cause of concern. Inadequate infrastructure and lack of strong incentives to practice quality research are major causes of decline in interest towards research work. Administrative hurdles add to the already unfavourable environment for research,” according to the Commission.

The current quantum of research taking place in India is insufficient. Of the 11 million students enrolled in higher education in 2005-06, only 0.64% were enrolled in research programs. A study conducted by the Indian business lobby, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and consulting firm Ernst & Young states that India has approximately 130,000 researchers, a tenth of the number of researchers in the US and one-seventh the number of researchers in China.

“MDI runs a PhD program in management for developing faculty as well as an executive program that is meant for executives who want to move into academia. Both programs are very successful,” notes Kapoor.

Industry interface

In a bid to avert the crisis, many business schools, including the IIMs and the Indian School of Business are taking the help of industry experts as visiting faculty and guest lecturers.

Jay Vikram Bakshi, President and CEO of Digiqom Solutions, is a frequent guest speaker at business schools such as the Management Development Institute (MDI) and the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.

“Management studies is not just about theory. In fact, this is one field where practice creates the theory. Business school students are taught the theory and classical case studies to apply the theory to.

"Speakers from the industry are invited by business schools to encourage students to think independently and get a flavour of where their learnings may be applied tomorrow,” notes Bakshi.

While the Indian Institute of Management review committee report is due in a month’s time, academics fear that the faculty shortage situation will not have an easy solution.

Business schools in the country have been trying to improve the situation by focusing on faculty development programs, revamping research offerings and stepping up recruitment in areas where there is a shortage such as marketing and finance.

However, in less than a year’s time the Foreign Universities Bill will become a law and foreign business schools will be allowed to set up campuses in the country. This may lead to fierce competition between Indian and foreign business schools for faculty.

“The entry of foreign business schools may aggravate the situation to some extent,” says Professor Sriram. “However, I presume that many of the foreign universities will bring in their existing faculty initially to ensure smoother and quality operations.”

Kapoor adds, “There would be a certain amount of pressure on Indian institutions with the arrival of foreign schools. However, this should motivate our schools to raise the bar and improve their standards.”

Whether or not Indian business schools will be able to rise up to the challenge and solve the faculty problem now remains to be seen.

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