With the Dec. 1, 2009 sale of Businessweek to Bloomberg LP, the magazine’s former owner, the McGraw-Hill Companies, officially exited the b-school ranking business. It now appears that the company wants back in. Credit Rating and Information Services of India (CRISIL), a rating agency that’s majority owned by McGraw-Hill’s Standard & Poor’s unit, yesterday announced the launch of a new rating service for business schools.
CRISIL has already graded management education programs at 20 schools, all of them in India, and it appears that the ratings will be limited to Indian business schools. Martin Winn, an S&P vice president, told me that neither S&P or CRISIL have any plans to rate business schools outside of India.
According to the CRISIL press release, schools that volunteer to be rated will be ranked on an eight-point scale, from A★★★ to B using a detailed methodology that “assesses the ability of the institute to impart quality education and to achieve desired student outcomes through the graded programme.” Programs will receive two ratings comparing them to other programs in the same Indian state and nationally. Grading criteria include quantitative and qualitative parameters such as faculty, curriculum, research, admissions, and student outcomes. Grades will be based on school-supplied information as well as a campus visit by a CRISIL team and input from recruiters and alumni.
Read the full article: Rating Agency Begins Grading Business Schools