Difference between a B-School and regular college

The inception of a Management Colleges or B-Schools, as they are colloquially called, can be traced back to mid 18th century. While there was no dearth of an elaborated framework of higher education, with specialization in varied fields of study, one always felt the expertise of putting together all these was lacking.

Traditionally a B-School was synonymous with providing just the Business insights but the study today covers a broader spectrum and it not only hones the business acumen of an individual but also provides a person with holistic insights of the environment around. A regular School, say, a Medical School, a Law School et al gives the individual an opportunity to pursue his study in a field. While one can become savant in one particular field, his knowledge would rather remain insularised.

To keep abreast of anything new, the study goes through a constant metamorphosis. So from the traditional marketing, finance and operations today we have more than 100 such streams at a B-school ranging from a Forest Management, Experimental Economics to Sports management.

With such varied study there are even more diverse set of individuals at a B-Schools. While the equation in Indian B-School is highly lop-sided in favor of engineers, the global b-Schools see a very heady mix of people comprising of commerce grads , economic grads, engineers, doctors , lawyers et al Thus a B-School creates a wonderful place of learning where these diverse people interact and have a greater enriching learning experience. Such a rarefied learning is not to be seen at other regular colleges.

A b-school also differentiates itself from other colleges since most reputed B-schools today adopt a case based study, whereby real life business instances are incorporated in the study and the individual are groomed to react to it. Such methods are not only instrumental at teaching the students the finer nuances of business but they also equip and prepare them to tackle any future business predicaments.

Professors at B-Schools

The Professors are generally synonymous with long droning lectures inducing spells of somnolence for all listeners around. The situation at a B-School could not be more different. The monologues give way to healthy exchange of ideas between the students and the professors. Such a learning keeps the students more involved in the process. Not only it creates better learning experience for the students but the discussion may touch upon points, hitherto unexplored and thus benefitting Professors in the process as well. The Professors are more of facilitators of learning, giving greater liberty to the students. The students have a lot of freedom to pursue things in their own way. The professors only interject when they are called upon by the students. Such a thrusting of responsibilities helps in bringing forward the best from the students. Most of these professors are erstwhile business and thus their knowledge is not pedantical about the subjects, they give a better practical picture of the subjects. Since they are themselves involved with the real life business cases as consultants, they are highly updated. The students at a B-School have prior work experience with lots of ideas and come from diverse backgrounds, thus a professor must be able to give them a good mix of diversity and practicality.