Methodology: 2012

he process of ranking India’s best professional colleges began with extensive secondary research to establish the criteria for selecting the master list of colleges. Only those with government accreditation or affiliation and with at least three passed-out batches were considered. Then, detailed questionnaires were sent to over 1,400 colleges in nine streams: Engineering, Medicine, Dentistry, Social Work, Law, Hotel Management, Fashion Technology, Architecture and Mass Communication. The questionnaires, which were also put on the Outlook and MDRA websites, measured colleges on five key parameters. A panel of experts with reasonable experience in their fields was consulted in 2010 to decide the parameters and sub-parameters for ranking and their importance. The same parameters and weightages were followed this year. Repeated follow-ups were undertaken to get responses from colleges.

In a separate perceptual survey conducted among students, faculty and recruiters/professionals in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Lucknow, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Kota, Bhubaneswar, Patna and Ahmedabad, field researchers visited several institutes to conduct questionnaire-based interviews among 300 senior faculty members and 337 final-year students from different streams. Another 254 recruiters/professionals were also interviewed. Final scores were calculated by adding perceptual and objective scores.

Given the quantum and quality of responses, seven streams—Engg, Medicine, Dentistry, Social Work, Law, Architecture and Hotel Management—were found fit for objective analysis and evaluated on a combination of objective and perceptual data (with equal weightage). Physical audits were done for 20 per cent of the colleges by MDRA and Outlook. For the other two fields—Fashion Technology and Mass Comm—a fully perceptual survey was done.

The MDRA research team is led by Abhishek Agrawal (Project Director) and included Abnish Jha (Dy Research Manager) and Avanish Kumar (Sr Research Executive).

Disclosure: MDRA is associated with CMS Academy of Communication & Convergence Studies.

Academic Excellence

Personality Development And Industry Exposure

Infrastructure

A similar system of points has been used to rank medical, dental, hotel management, social work, architecture and law colleges