AICTE’s assault on Indian School of Business

Hyderabad, January 2: The Indian School of Business, Hyderabad is rated as one of the top-20 B-schools in the world, but the All India Council for Technical Education continues to label it as an “unrecognized institute” even after losing its regulatory powers to the University Grants Commission recently. 

Ironically, AICTE had updated the list of unapproved institutes in AP on its website on December 5 and ISB featured in the list of unapproved institutes though it had lost its approvals power in last May.

In May, the Supreme Court had ruled that the AICTE had no powers to grant approvals to any technical or management institute and its role is only “advisory”. The Council filed a review petition which was dismissed. The blacklisting of ISB by the AICTE in October 2012 had led to protests from academicians and students and the Council seems to have not learnt any lessons from its past mistakes. 

Established in 2001, ISB enjoys the distinction of being the first Indian B-school to be ranked among the top-20 global business schools in the Annual MBA rankings by Financial Times, London. Another distinction is that 100 per cent faculty in ISB are doctorates.ISB officials meanwhile took light of the AICTE blacklisting it again.

“ISB is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Less than 5 % of the world’s B-schools are accredited by AACSB. ISB is South Asia’s first B-school to earn this accreditation. ISB’s one-year postgraduate programme does not fall under the ambit of AICTE’s regulatory mechanism. It is for this reason we have not sought its approval,” said Sriram Go-palakrishnan, spokesperson, ISB. 

Ever since ISB is established, the AICTE has kept it in its “unapproved list”. AICTE chairman Prof M.S. Mantha said he is not aware of the issue and would take action against officials responsible for uploading the list of recognized and unrecognized institutes on the website.