AIM eyes Top 5 slot for Asian business schools

To achieve its goal of being among the Top 5 business schools in the region in the next five years, Makati City-based Asian Institute of Management (AIM) needs to address a host of issues and stumbling blocks foremost of which is funding.

 

AIM was the No. 3 business school in Asia in the 1990s, based on the list of now-defunct Asia Inc. But it never made it to the current roster of The Economist and Financial Times, the two entities that rank over 3,000 international business schools.

 

“In the Economist list, we are unofficially No. 13 in Asia. But we’re not even in Financial Times’ list of Top 100 worldwide. There are gaps we need to fill. But we want to be there,” newly appointed AIM president Steven J. DeKrey told reporters in a briefing.

 

Financial Times bases its ranking on the salaries of graduates 45 percent of the time, according to the AIM chief. 

 

“The logic is, it measures the value of that graduate to the industry,” DeKrey noted, before citing the problem in the case of the Philippines.

 

“The Philippines doesn’t pay the same salary versus Singapore, Shanghai, or Hong Kong, where top schools place their graduates.

 

“If AIM students are placed here, their salaries would just be a third or half of their counterparts in other schools,” he said.

 

The measure could be remedied by using the purchasing power parity, not the amount of salary, DeKrey, noting, however, that “The easier route is for us to get quality candidates to access top paying jobs in those cities.

 

“Only 2 out of 3 of our graduates are employed three months after graduation,” Dr. DeKrey noted. “We want to enhance the employability of our graduates by admitting only top candidates,” he added.

 

But student quality is only a third of the problem, because the school also needs to boost its faculty and curriculum.

 

“We intend to go for niches in tourism, family business, and public-private partnership to differentiate us,” said DeKrey. “We teach government and private leaders but we have to figure out how to get them together in the same classroom. 

 

“We should market our unique programs like Masters of Development Management. AIM’s not broadly well known,” he added.

 

And the school needs to raise P2 billion.

 

AIM is increasing its tuition fees within three years, from what is now the “underpriced” $24,000 to $31,000 starting September 2013 to the regional standard $45,000 starting in 2015, according to the AIM official.

 

“I was amazed to see that we are charging so little... The average tuition of top business schools in Asia was $45,000,” DeKrey noted.

 

“We will reduce the enrollment from a two-section student population of 140 to a single section of 70 students this September,” he said. 

 

“We’ll conduct a tighter selection process for MBA applicants next year to ensure they have the best social, emotional, and intellectual capacities and are attractive to our recruiters.”

 

AIM is also going for a wider diversity of students by attracting Thais, Indonesians, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Vietnamese, Hong Kongers, and mainland Chinese, as well as Americans, Australians, and Europeans. — VS, GMA News