India's Best B-schools: How We Did It?

FORTUNE INDIA'S latest introduction — India's Best B-schools — is the most contemporary ranking, built from scratch to incorporate six most important parameters to identify the country's best business schools. For the first time in the country, it also introduces a brand new concept 'Distance To Frontier' — a parameter that benchmarks each B-School against how close it is to being the leader.

The survey and rankings were conducted between July-October 2022 by our research partner, CMS Research.

To identify the best B-schools based on extensive research, we invited more than 2,000 B-schools that fulfil basic criteria such as their existence for at least five years with a minimum of three passed-out batches of MBA/PGDM as eligibility to participate in this ranking.

The study included Expert Consultation, Global Perspective and Elements of Evaluation (EoE). For Expert Consultation, we connected with academic leaders (directors and heads of renowned management institutes and senior industry experts) to understand key elements that make a difference to evaluate and rank MBA institutes, especially in the post pandemic, digitally connected world. Global MBA education was evaluated and accordingly, key elements and their weights were arrived at.

In Global Perspective, apart from examining Fortune Inc's global methodology of ranking business schools, international tie-ups, international accreditation, student and faculty exchange programmes, international placements were considered. After detailed deliberation, Fortune India and CMS Research arrived at the methodology that requires B-schools to submit data for three years for consistency of results. Data for parameters such as Placements & ROI, Admission Attractiveness, Pedagogy & Infrastructure were given weights of 50:30:20 for 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Based on inputs from experts, the Key Elements of Evaluation (KEoE) were framed. The sub-elements of KEoE were also designed based on information available with B-Schools. These were termed as Sub-Elements of Evaluation (SEoE). The weights as suggested by experts were then assigned for these KEoEs and SEoEs.

Considering the need for three years of data, the key Elements of Evaluation (KEoE) and sub-Elements of Evaluation (SEoE), a detailed participation form was prepared. This was circulated among B-Schools to participate in the rankings. After several rounds of discussions and deliberations, the six KEoEs were finalised based on which B-Schools were evaluated under the Absolute Survey.

The Survey

Two different types of surveys — Absolute Data Survey and Perception Survey — were carried out to assess B-schools. The Absolute Data Survey was conducted among B-schools where participation form in a prescribed format was sent for submission of their Absolute data. In all, 159 B-schools participated in the survey with Absolute data in the given time-frame. In addition, Absolute data of 16 Government B-schools was evaluated from their websites, government and other data sources. A total of 175 B-schools are ranked this year.

The Perception Survey was conducted across 26 cities. All relevant stakeholders — Final Year students, Faculty & Recruiters — were approached to participate in the Perception Survey. The total sample size of 1,057 comprised 311 Faculty, 222 Recruiters and 524 students. The final rank and scores were given after combining Absolute and Perception survey data in equal measure.

In addition to the rankings, we have introduced a brand new concept in B-school rankings in India — Distance to Frontier. This score was derived to understand and give B-schools an objective assessment of where they stood in comparison with the topper. The Distance to Frontier score measures absolute performance a B-school would require to become a frontier. The B-school's Distance to Frontier score is reflected on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier.