“B-SCHOOLS SHOULD LEVERAGE WHAT'S UNIQUE TO INDIA”

Sangeet Chowfla, President and CEO, Graduate Management Admission Council, which conducts the Graduate Management Admission Test, speaks to Sonal Khetarpal of Business Today about the demand for specialised courses and rise of non-US B-schools. Edited excerpts:

- Sonal Khetarpal

How has management education changed over the years in the context of Asia, especially India?

A. The demand for management education is amazingly stable. Even though there is a lot of churn happening with different kinds of formats, the same number of people are applying to business schools as before. But under that calm surface, there is a fair amount of churn in a couple of dimensions.

One, we are seeing globalisation of the candidate base. Three or four decades ago, management education was largely a western phenomenon; today, it is across the world. China and India together take as many tests as the US. So, the demographic base is shifting to Asia, and there is growth of candidates from Africa and Central Asia as well.

Globally recognised brands in business education used to be largely western schools, mainly in the US, but today there are very high-quality education institutes around the world, particularly in Europe and Asia, especially in Singapore and Hong Kong. Indian schools, too, are fast coming up in global recognition.

We are seeing a maturing of the industry as well. When industries mature – and we have seen this in many other industries – they tend to segment. When Henry Ford came up with the Model T, it was one car and it came in one colour. Today, you don’t think of a ‘car’; you think of an SUV, a compact SUV, a family sedan, a convertible... The same is happening to management education. The classic two-year MBA continues to be the flagship programme, but different forms of MBA programmes are emerging – one-year, online and blended. There are also early career options for students directly out of school or with a year or two of experience, because mostly MBA is for people with fiveseven years of experience.