The Great Guru Hunt

It’s not just small and upcoming ones that are grappling with a faculty crunch; the venerable IIMs and other top schools too are hurting. "Worldwide, there’s a shortage of faculty. The problem is compounded by high salaries in the US, Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong, which we are not able to match. Then there’s a shortage of PhDs, especially of Indian origin," points out M. Rammohan Rao, dean of the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business.

Way back when B-schools were far and few, the prestige of being associated with one attracted good teaching talent. But the proliferation of private B-schools—along with their money power—has changed the equation. The result is a tremendous demand-supply mismatch that is naturally felt more by government-controlled institutions which are unable to stretch their pockets to match the private sector. Bakul Dholakia, former director of IIM-A, says: "Generally, all management schools are struggling to find the right quality of faculty members."

A suitable candidate—who should ideally be an MPhil or PhD from a reputed institution with some industry experience, international exposure and a penchant for research—is becoming a rarity. Compounding this situation is a shortage of people going in for higher studies in management and technical subjects. "We advertise every quarter. Though we get a lot of applications, they’re not of the desired quality," complains Ashok Kapoor of the Gurgaon-based Management Development Institute (MDI).

Not just B-schools, faculty shortage is a reality across colleges and universities. University Grants Commission chairman S.K. Thorat pins the blame on state government policies—like faculty members remaining on contract or ad hoc appointments for years on end—that discourage young talent, particularly in the science streams, from pursuing doctoral studies. "The quality of a college and its teaching depends on the quality, qualification and international exposure of its faculty members," agrees Thorat.

Is there a way out of this crunch? To help woo and retain talent, both state-owned institutions led by IIM-A as well as private schools are now putting in place a global model where the faculty is allowed to work on industry research projects in their centres of excellence and also permitted consultancy work. This is a stark departure from the "dedicated faculty" that the top B-schools once presented with pride.

Dholakia, currently advisor to the infrastructure major Adani Group, justifies the new process: "A B-school is valued because it brings a wealth of experience. As such, the faculty should have the experience and ability to help industry handle various problems through consultancy. The academia-industry linkage also helps faculty members gain a better understanding of business realities." It’s a twin benefit: this tack not only helps supplement salaries, the interface enables faculty members to keep their theoretical side in sync with industry and market developments.

This approach has shown results for ISB, for instance. Thanks to its innovative approach of sending promising talent for training to reputed institutions like Harvard, the ISB has seen the share of its permanent faculty rise to 35 per cent, while a substantial number are contract or "clinical" faculty. When ISB started in 2004, it had 90 per cent visiting faculty and just five permanent professors. Ideally, most top management institutes would like at least 50-60 per cent of its faculty to be permanent and the remaining on contract or as visiting faculty. According to industry, only a few among the top management institutes have this desired permanent faculty strength.

Yet, despite the challenges, B-schools are not looking at relatively easier solutions like virtual classroom. Says ISB’s Rao: "Distance education or the media classroom does not enjoy wide acceptance." The premium B-school, however, does not rule out technological link-ups to share special programmes. It is currently using teleconferencing for global social venture programmes to link up with international schools like Haas, Yale, London Business School and Columbia Business School. There are other examples: webcasting and "virtual class modes" are used at Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research; and MDI helps link students to places like Ludhiana and Panvel to study real-time situations.

Out of sheer desperation, some management institutions are now mulling their own faculty training courses. They are also encouraging companies to pitch in with guest lectures and work programmes. Driven in part by industry demand, there is also a decisive change in the attitude of management institutes towards upgrading facilities, particularly for research. While private B-schools have been taking the lead, there is room for improvement.

Hopefully, the government will lend a helping hand. With a long-term view to bridge the estimated shortage of 5,00,000 teachers at the post-graduate level, the central universities are offering attractive fellowships to PhD and MPhil students who pursue research along with teaching to publish papers in reputed international journals. These fellowships, along with the impetus provided by the new salary scale under the Sixth Pay Commission, should lead to a sizeable increase in the number of MPhil and PhDs in the country over the next five years.

Thorat is optimistic: "Given the attractive incentives, we are hopeful that while some (of these scholars) will join the private sector or go overseas, a bulk of them will stay with us." That said, the challenge ahead is indeed immense. Out of around 1,800 management schools in the country, only about 250 have "decent" faculty. The bulk of 40-45 per cent may have "adequate" faculty on their rolls. "In small towns, the numbers may be adequate but for the rest, one cannot say much. For developing and nurturing any institute, a full-time faculty is essential," states Dr Uday Salunkhe, president, Association of Indian Management Schools. Clearly, a lot more is required to pull young minds towards academics. And unless things change in a hurry, this would be one of those unsolvable case studies for the country’s B-schools.