International Business Schools Entering India

The Indian School of Business (ISB) has signed an agreement with the MIT Sloan School of Management to develop two new institutes at the ISB’s upcoming campus at Mohali.

As part of the agreement, MIT will provide faculty support and curriculum design in the areas of manufacturing, operations and management of large infrastructure, assist in faculty recruitment for the ISB, provide teaching opportunity for MIT faculty, offer joint executive education programs and facilitate joint action learning projects for students.

David Schmittlein, dean of MIT Sloan School of Management says “This is part of our distinct international strategy of developing regionally dispersed, mutually beneficial institutional partnerships, and allows MIT Sloan to contribute to world-class management education in India, and creates opportunities for MIT Sloan faculty and students to work with local faculty and students here in India.”

International colleges and universities have been collaborating with Indian educational institutions since the early 1990s when government regulations did not allow foreign institutes to set up campuses in India or, recognize foreign degrees awarded in India.

Collaborations were inked to help foreign institutes market their programs in India through a local partner, participate in student and faculty exchanges as well as lend their expertise. Collaborations ranged from twinning agreements, joint faculty and staff exchange programs to support in curriculum design and pedagogy.

Business school collaboration

At present, there are a significant number of business schools in India that have collaborative agreements with international institutes. The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), Management Development Institute (MDI), Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Institute of Management Technology (IMT), the list goes on.

According to Foreign Education Providers in India, a report on collaborative arrangements commissioned by the UK India Education Research Initiative (UKERI), there are 143 Indian institutions and 161 foreign education providers engaged in collaboration. The total number of collaborations is 230. Each collaboration may have one or more than one program delivery and the total number of programs that are collaboratively delivered is numerically 641.

The report goes on to say that the maximum number of collaborations is taking place in the field of management and business administration. Out of the total of 641 programs, 170 (26.5%) collaborative programs are offered in this field.

Great Lakes Institute of Management, a management school based in Chennai collaborates with several universities of international repute.

Professor S Sriram, executive director of Great Lakes says “We have agreements with about half a dozen foreign universities such as Yale, IIT Chicago, University of Houston, and Nanyang Technological University among others. These cover joint research, academic programs, and student/faculty exchange. We get international faculty with global exposure while our course curriculum incorporates current global trends.”

Typically, one business school collaborates with several international partners at the same time. For instance, ISB has academic agreements with Kellogg School of Management, the Wharton School, and the London Business School.

ISB has also set up a Centre for Case Development in collaboration with the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario, to enhance case writing capabilities among Indian academia, and also to distribute these cases worldwide. The school also collaborates with Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Similarly, the Fuqua School of Business has agreements with multiple business schools such as the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore and Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad.

International MBA partnerships

“India will continue to see increasing interest from foreign universities wishing to establish partnerships with Indian schools as the nation continues its economic rise and the number of students wishing to pursue MBA studies grows. The recent legislation allowing foreign universities to enter the Indian market will no doubt accelerate these trends,” says Vinoo Urs, regional director for India at Duke University, Fuqua School of Business.

India’s top business schools, the Indian Institutes of Management collaborate with many international institutes such as Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), ESSEC (France), Cardiff University (UK), City University of New York (US), UCLA Anderson (US) among others. In fact, the IIMs are working toward increasing foreign collaborations in the field of faculty and student exchanges, research and training.

With the government’s Foreign Universities Bill on its way to becoming a legislation, foreign schools will be allowed to set up campuses in the country. Though many schools have taken the collaboration route to enter the country, in the near future it may not be necessary to do so.

India's economy

There are also many institutes that are making inroads into the management education market without taking the help of a partner. Harvard Business School (HBS) delivered a range of executive education programs in India this year and is hunting for space for a classroom to deliver these programs in future.

Professor David Yoffie, senior associate dean and chair of executive education at HBS explains, “India’s economy is vibrant and growing, and Harvard Business School offers a blend of executive programs in India that help participants develop broad strategy and leadership skills, as well as providing expertise and insights in key areas of the growth such as real estate and professional services.

“The increase in executive education options in India is a positive trend that will lead to stronger businesses, more educational opportunities and inclusive growth. At Harvard Business School, we remain fully committed to India as a place we can teach and learn from Indian business executives. That is why we offer executive education programs here in India and we look forward to developing further timely and relevant executive programs in the future, based on the needs of the market in India.”

While Harvard may choose to go solo, many foreign institutions are looking at partnering with Indian institutions. Students stand to gain from such partnerships as both partners are able to combine their expertise to offer greater value to students through a greater international focus and better international recognition of their qualifications.

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