Over half the MBA institutes have ‘zero’ research papers to their credit, reveals NIRF 2022

Hence, India’s share in the overall world publications in the management discipline is just 4.45 per cent. In contrast, our share in international research in engineering is 6.93 per cent.

Research output is one of the five parameters on which higher education institutes are assessed in the management category in NIRF. The other parameters are teaching and learning resources, graduation outcomes, outreach and inclusivity and perception.

The NIRF report states that it is “not surprising” that so many institutes have zero research publications since many colleges primarily focus on undergraduate education. As far as management institutions are concerned, the report states, “to a lesser extent, the focus is on “case studies” rather than on research publications.”

However, the report adds a footnote stating, “As a further caution, it may be noted that this data pertains to publications belonging to the management discipline as categorised by the Web of Science. Clearly, many of the best management schools also publish in allied areas such as Economics, Social Sciences, Information Technology, Psychology – which may not belong to mainstream management discipline, and therefore, excluded from consideration here.”

The India Rankings 2022 is the seventh consecutive edition that ranks higher education institutes across 11 categories. The Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education publishes the NIRF report, which claims to deploy “objective parameters and metrics with factual data gathered from applicant institutions themselves as well as third party sources.”