ISB slips in FT rankings, IIM-A retains ground at 11th

The Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB) has slipped seven places to rank at 20 from 13th position in the Global Top MBA Rankings 2012 released by Financial Times, London.

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, (IIM-A), which debuted last year, with its one-year post graduate programme for executives (PGPX), has cling on to its 11th position in the FT rankings.

ISB and IIM-A are the only Indian business schools featured on the FT rankings, as B-Schools which participate in the rankings must be internationally accredited and the management programme must have run for at least four consecutive years. This year, 150 B-Schools participated.

While FT-ranked IIM-Ahmedabad, as the top business school in terms of career progression, ISB stood at 29th position for the same.

The weighted salary of IIM Ahmedabad stands at $175,076 whereas the weighted salary for ISB is $129,512.

"While the rankings are based on multiple parameters, the one area where we were ranked number one in the whole world was in career progression of our students. It is because of this that we have been able to maintain our 11th rank in the global MBA list brought out by FT," said Saral Mukherjee, chairperson of PGPX at IIM-A.

IIM-A’s weighted salary is marginally up this year by $636, closing to Harvard Business School whose weighted salary is $178,249. The weighted salary for ISB on the other hand is $129,512, down by 3.64 per cent.

In terms of value for money parameter, IIM Ahmedabad is ranked at 29th and ISB stood at 52. The overall salary percentage increase at IIM Ahmedabad is 140 per cent, down by 12 per cent, compared to last year's increase. ISB on the other hand recorded salary percentage increase of 177 per cent this year.

One of the factors for ISB's comparatively overall lower rank may be its lack of participation in the doctoral rank category in which IIM Ahmedabad has scored 52nd rank. Also, the IIM-A's research rank was 92 this year, 11 positions below ISB's 70th rank.

US-based Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School and University of Pennsylvania's Wharton are ranked first, second and third respectively. China's Hong Kong UST Business School is ranked tenth and National University of Singapore's School of Business is ranked 23rd.

"Movement in rankings is very common and year-to-year variation happens all the time. You will have to understand that there are a large number of factors and each school makes changes in each factor over a period of time. Also these factors are closely clubbed together. So, you will see some huge swings in rankings. We, however, look at specific things like research ranking, where we have moved up and would want to be in the top 50. Also, so long as we remain among the top schools, we are satisfied," said Ajit Rangnekar, Dean ISB.