Ranking Of Abusiness Schools In Bangladesh

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Ranking of business school is a vital issue to students intending to go abroad for higher education. Often students as well as their guardians depend on such rankings without even verifying their credibility and usefulness or judging the factors upon which they are done. Hence this matter needs some study to uncover the underlying motives and criteria upon which rankings are made. These rankings have also become increasingly important to business schools as they allow organizations to cream inputs -recruitment of students and faculty, support of alumni and donors- and stream outputs- placement of graduates.

Before moving into the details of enquiry one should first understand what ranking is: college and university rankings are listings of universities and colleges in an order determined by any combination of factors. Rankings can be based on subjectively perceived quality and on some combination of empirical statistics, or on surveys of educators, scholars, students or others. Such rankings are often consulted by prospective students in the university and college admissions process.

Business schools typically strive to meet two goals: the exploration of knowledge through research and the exploitation of knowledge through instruction. Over the past few years, the popular press routinely has published rankings of business schools which focus only on instruction (i.e., MBA program performance).

1.2 Objectives of the Study

The major objectives of this study include:

 Evaluate different ranking criteria and measures of ranking,

 Compare and contrast the relationship among various ranking methodology,

 Analyze the benefits/pitfalls of ranking systems and

 Identify the feasibility of such ranking system in Bangladesh by gathering opinion

from some business education experts and faculties regarding the ranking of business schools.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

Every year huge numbers of students are going abroad for higher education from Bangladesh. While selecting a university they mainly rely on the university rankings found on the websites, which are mostly prepared by various magazines and newspapers of different countries. A majority of the students depend on those ranking without knowing the factors behind that ranking and whether those factors are dependable ones. The study strives to guide students to have clear and unprejudiced concept about the ranking of business schools and to help them achieve their potential by expanding access and success in higher education by taking admission decisions more consciously. The study will also help the faculties and businesses to take more accurate decisions in choosing business schools for employment and recruitment purposes.

1.4 Scope of the Study

The study will mainly conduct comparative analysis among the crucial factors regarding ranking of business schools throughout the world. Then a study will be done to find whether there are such ranking systems among business schools in Bangladesh. If not then- focus will be on to assess the feasibility of such ranking in our country. And to do that, empirical findings will be gathered- to some extent- from some faculties of business schools. Emphasis will be on their opinions about current ranking procedure, what should be included in such system and finally their view points about developing such a ranking system for Bangladesh. Lastly some suggestions on the basis of gathered information would wrap up the project work.

1.5 Methodology

To attain the objective of the study data collection will be mostly done with secondary sources: related articles from the websites of the ranking organizations, journals etc. However primary data will also be gathered to analyze the feasibility of implementing a ranking system for Business Schools in Bangladesh. For this purpose a survey research will be conducted and judgment sample will be considered as sampling procedure. Information will be collected through questionnaire and interviewing some business school experts.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 History of Business School Ranking

Although business schools and business education had been commercial successes, there were substantial questions about the relevance of their educational product and doubts about their effects on both the careers of their graduates and on management practice. These concerns coupled with the rise of many competitors including consulting and training companies, e-learning and company in-house programs. Such a confronting situation along with the increasing trend of consumerism in educational sector has given birth to the ranking of Business Schools.

U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) was the pioneer in ranking colleges and universities. The magazine paved the way for what has become a worldwide phenomenon. Although rankings began in 1983 they did not become an annual event until 1987. They were launched with little trial. Editors thought the project was worth experimenting with because it might gain attention and sell magazines. Initially U.S. News took a simple approach. It surveyed college presidents, asking them to identify the nation's best institutions of higher learning. As the annual project received a lot of attention editors thought they could try a somewhat similar approach to identify the best colleges. The college survey began as a biennial effort- first in 1983 and then again in 1985. In 1987, the magazine embarked on a far more ambitious undertaking. Once again it only surveyed presidents, but this time it published the results not just in the magazine but also in a separate guidebook called "America's Best Colleges." The guidebook included rankings of law, business, medical, and engineering schools. In 1994, U.S. News found a lead advertiser for a graduate school guidebook, the Chrysler Corporation. It has published an annual graduate school guidebook ever since, although the advertisers have changed over the years. Starting in 1997, U.S. News put online substantially more information than there was room for in the printed guidebook. It now charges a fee to see the full rankings, although much of the information is available without any cost.

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