The Hindu Business Line : B-schools forge foreign tie-ups

The nature of the collaboration can be varied. While some schools have student and faculty exchange programmes, others have more active collaboration involving curriculum designing and shared teaching.

G. Naga Sridhar

Academic partnerships with global business schools is the current buzzword among management institutes in India.

From the big ticket institutions to the smaller ones, all the players seem to be competing with each other to forge foreign tie-ups.

The increasing popularity of management education and the competition among the management institutes are driving the global collaborations of Indian business schools, according to observers.

“From our interactions with the students, we find that tie-ups with globally reputed business schools attract a good number of students to management education,” says Ajit Rangnekar, Deputy Dean, Indian School of Business (ISB).

The nature of the collaboration is varied. While some schools have student and faculty exchange programmes, others have more active collaboration involving curriculum designing and shared teaching programmes. Offering on-line education is also gaining popularity.

ISB, for instance, has academic associations with the Kellogg School, The Wharton School and the London Business School. The scope of these associations span broad areas – curriculum design and development, faculty, research and student exchange programmes.

The role of Kellogg and Wharton is to assist in academic areas such as course and faculty selection and development.

Their faculty members also come and teach at ISB. In addition, faculty members from these schools are encouraged to collaborate with ISB faculty on joint research projects.

The London Business School, for instance, has helped establish the Centre for Executive Education at ISB.

“However, we do not offer any programmes in collaboration with foreign institutions nor any degree from these institutions in India,” says Rangnekar.

ISB is not alone in forging foreign collaborations. Almost all the IIMs have some form of relationship with the top business schools in the world.

IIM, Ahmedabad, recently announced a Global Leader’s programme in association with Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Upcoming institutions such as the Siva Sivani Institute of Management, Hyderabad, have also decided to take the foreign collaboration route to offer cutting edge business education. SSIM recently set up an institute for global studies.

“We are keen on increasing academic partnerships with international business schools and this centre will act as a sheet-anchor,” explains Ramachandra Rao, Director, SSIM.

The tie-ups with institutions abroad augur well for the students. “Exposure to different management practices is a key to success in management. Global partnerships will be very efficacious as today’s CEOs are expected to be global leaders in a flat world,” says Manik Daruvala, Director, Triumphant Institute of Management Education.

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