The Hindu Business Line : Global B-schools seek Indian tie-ups

It's happening here and now. The country is entering a vibrant mode in education, especially in management education. In the globalisation process, India is the key word with American and British business schools tying up with Indian counterparts for student and faculty exchange programmes. Prof Jay Bourgeois, Director, Darden School Of Business, University of Virginia, who was in the country recently scouting for tie-ups with Indian B-schools and corporates says that B-schools in the US are increasingly looking for associations with BRIC countries. Darden, which already has a formal relationship with the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad for student exchange programmes, is keen on getting more Indian students into the university in Virginia

Increasing interest in India is thanks to its explosive growth in business, according to Ms Judy D. Olian, Dean, UCLA Anderson School of Management. "This also means that Indian B-schools cannot meet the huge talent demand for its industry. Thanks to globalisation, Indian students now have access to our programmes," she says. Apart from looking for tie-ups for executive programmes in niche industries like biotechnology, life sciences, finance, entertainment and media, she says UCLA is also looking for research relationships with Indian B-schools.

In fact, Prof Uday S. Karmarkar, who's an LA Times Chair in Technology and Strategy at UCLA Anderson, has initiated a project involving 15 partners worldwide and Indian B-schools and corporates figure among them. The project studies the impact of new online information and communication technologies on business practices worldwide. UCLA-sponsored Business and Information Technologies (BIT) study will follow the changes that occur in firms and industry sectors over an extended time horizon. The study will eventually be executed in 20-25 different countries, by research teams from these countries. Participating countries include India, USA, Italy, Spain and Korea.

Both these American universities are also looking at increased participation in executive education programmes in India. UCLA, which has worked with the retail sector in Australia, is looking at similar tie-ups here. The university is also tapping several banking and IT sector players for imparting executive education programmes in financial engineering. With the Indian financial industry acquiring more depth, demand for such courses will surely firm up, says Prof Bhagwan Chowdhry, Professor of Finance at UCLA Anderson.

Another growing phenomenon is the increasing number of Indian students and professors at American universities. "In 2005, we received 213 applications from India, in 2006 the number increased to 335," Prof Bourgeois said.

With the number of applications from India going up each year, the batch is, in fact, over-represented by Indians, he said. In fact, at Darden, each batch of students has about 45 Indians among 200 plus students. For its student exchange programmes, Darden has tie-ups with 15 schools around the world including ISB, ESA Barcelona, London Business School, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Singapore Management Institute.

"In the globalised economy, India cannot be ignored," commented Dr Sushil Bhatia, Executive-in-Residence, Institute for Executive Education and Life-long Learning at the Sawyer School of Management, Suffolk University. The 19 students from Suffolk University who were in Bangalore recently to study the `India phenomenon,' visited Intel, GE Welch Technology Center, Trigent Software and Sigma-Aldrich Inc and EXIM Bank. These students have opted to do a project on how Indian businesses are managed. "Though some of them are working with American banks, power companies and even media companies, they realise that some time during their careers they have to do business with India," said Prof C. Gopinath, Associate Professor of Management, Suffolk University.

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