Asia states its case for MBAs

Echoing this, the world's top business schools find themselves liaising ever more closely with the business world to learn their specific needs. Not that business schools and the "real world" were ever too distanced in the past - indeed most top business schools faculty are drawn from the top echelons of international business, proving that the war for talent exists at faculty level too. But increasingly, courses are being created to provide specialized skills to MBA graduates, while remaining within the intrinsically general business nature of the course.

In recent years, Indian business schools have stepped up to the wicket, according to the world's biggest MBA recruiters in an exclusive Jan 2008 report. The QS Global 100 Top Business Schools Report 2007 provides exclusive feedback from 489 prestigious international MBA recruiters as to the world's best business schools. The recruiters, from dozens of different services and industries, include such names as Accenture, Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson and Bank of America. These are the blue chip companies setting the standards they expect from the world's business schools, and which provide the yardstick against which others are measured.

The report shows that India's business schools are achieving greater recognition amongst the international business community. The "ABC" of Institutes of International Management at Ahmedabad (12th in the Asia Pacific region), Bangalore (9th) and Calcutta (17th) all featured strongly in the report with IIM Bangalore cementing its place in the Top 10 of Asia Pacific business schools for the second year running. A strong placing by the Indian School of Business (20th) cemented the truth that India is providing a major business school presence in the Asia Pacific region.

As the war for talent rages on, a business school's reputation with recruiters and MBA candidates, is of paramount importance both to business schools and the people who hope to attend them. For the best students, attending a school at the highest echelon of the industry, meaning those with access to the world's largest MBA recruiters, has never been more important. The success of Indian schools in this kind of survey is great news for the country's many thousands of MBA aspirants as well as international students who wish to study overseas in places like India.

So why are Indian business schools doing so well in recent reports? Alok Jain, Admissions Tutor at IIM Ahmadebad, says: "The world is looking closely at India and it makes a lot of difference for any employer looking for a global dimension. The economy is booming, big investments are coming in and the large population has become a major strength of the country. India has a huge young generation segment, more so than China. For any economy there is a lot of market available so there is a lot of potential for companies. Indian Business Schools like IIMA believe in providing unique Indian business cases in class. That is why Indian schools are improving day by day."

The report is also totally unique in that it ranks the most popular schools by region and discipline. As well as the strong regional showing by Indian business schools, they also featured particularly strongly in the Finance discipline. Indian schools did not perform quite so well in other fields such as Marketing and Entrepreneurship, however. Although not necessarily competing with some of the top US and European schools, this may be a concern to the Deans of India's biggest MBA providers.

Top 10 Schools in the Asia Pacific Region (alphabetical order)

Next 10 Schools in the Asia Pacific Region (alphabetical order)