PhD MANDATE TRIGGERS FACULTY SHORTAGE

B-schools have to ensure that at least 50% faculty members are researchactive PhDs. This is hurting the student-faculty ratio.

- Ajita Shashidhar

DOES YOUR FACULTY COMPRISE research-active PhDs? This is an obvious question whenever a business school (B-school) applies for NIRF rankings in India or international accreditations like EQUIS or AACSB. NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework, an initiative of Union Ministry of Education) rankings give 30% weight to faculty research. This makes it mandatory for B-schools to ensure at least 50% faculty is research-active PhDs. This wasn't the case a decade ago when a B-school's role was to groom managers and number of PhDs in faculty didn't matter. In fact, in initial years, most schools hired from industry to teach students the practical aspects of running a business.