The Hindu Business Line : Diversity is the flavour at B-schools

New Delhi, Feb. 2 Top-league management schools in the country are going the corporate way — they too are now looking at embracing the culture of diversity and increasing the number of foreign students they take in. Besides upping the global brand equity of the institutes, the trend seems to have been fuelled by the demand for a diverse ethnic background in boardrooms.

Mr Samir Barua, Director, Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, said: “Currently, of the 250 students in IIM-A, 70 are of different nationalities. There is a strong intent to scale up the number of foreign students. Globally, ethnic diversity at the workplace is gaining acceptance and companies with a global outlook have a certain percentage reserved for people from various ethnicities.”

Echoing a similar view, Mr Debashish Dasgupta, Chairman-International Linkages, IIM-Lucknow, said: “We get about 30 students each year from various international universities with which we have tie-ups. The number is rising with every batch”.

‘Brand ambassadors’

Observing that the foreign students also act as “our brand ambassadors”, he said: “We have a number MoUs with institutions in France, Greece, Finland, and the US. Students who come for a few terms find culture limitations right in the campus itself. For instance, having a Coke or watching a video while the class is in progress is simply unacceptable in India,” he said.

IIM-Lucknow does a regular benchmarking on course content, pedagogy and course delivery with its exchange students.

A large number foreign students are also coming to India to be a part of the economic boom. According to Mr M. Rammohan Rao, Dean, Indian School of Business: “There is proliferation of foreign students on our campuses. At present, foreign students comprise about five per cent of the total student base of 425. This apart, a slew of students also come on exchange programmes.”

The Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi, also has ten per cent of its seats reserved for students of foreign nationality. “A large number of students come to our campus as education in India is highly subsidised. We have stepped up the number of tie-ups with foreign universities to encourage more foreigners to become a part of our campus,” Prof J.K. Mitra, Dean-FMS said. Students from Korea, China, Nepal and Canada are a part of the student community in FMS.

Global acceptance

According to a Tata Consultancy official, students from foreign shores have already been coming on exchange programmes. However, taking up full time courses also means that our educational programmes have gained global acceptance.

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