Institutions offering MBA programs in Canada have witnessed a surge in applications as international students look beyond the United States for their MBA.
MBA
India’s MBA Crisis
Source: Economic Times
The biggest reason for the decline in job offers to recent MBA graduates.
1 in 2 MBAs In India Fails to Land a Job
Source: Economic Times
The MBA programme was once supreme. The last few years, though, have proved to be rough.
IIMs Gain Greater Autonomy, Can Award MBAs Under New Law
Source: University World News
India’s prestigious Indian Institutes of Management are set to gain increased autonomy after the lower house of parliament passed a bill anointing them ‘institutions of national importance’.
International Experience Becoming Essential for MBA Programs
Source: Canadian Business via Academica
International business experience is quickly becoming an essential part of an MBA graduate’s CV, reports Canadian Business. As a result, more of the country’s MBA programs are adding international exchanges and fellowships to their curricula. Some major business schools that have recently added these components are the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University, the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto, and the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba.
Business Dean Calls for Adaptive MBA Programs
Source: University Business via Academica
MBA programs must capitalize on innovative educational technologies and rethink their traditional student bodies if they wish to keep pace with the changing demands of the international business world, writes Judy Bullock, University Dean of Business at American InterContinental University. For Bullock, a major part of this new shift will be for MBA programs to use part-time and online learning models to open their offerings to a broader range of students. These efforts will help MBA programs get past the paradigm in which they are reserved for “the elite, accessible only to those of a certain academic or professional pedigree who could dedicate themselves to a traditional, full-time program.” To this end, MBA programs need to “recognize the different learning styles, needs, and experiences” of those who can bring value to the business community.
Own Business Now Big Lure for Fresh MBA Graduates: Survey
Source: Times of India | March 17, 2014
NEW DELHI: Fresh B-school graduates are increasingly shunning the security of a steady job and striking out on their own. A worldwide survey of B-school alumni reveals that 45% of those who graduated between 2010 and 2013 preferred self-employment — that’s almost double the proportion of their seniors who opted to pursue their own dreams in the 2000-2009 period. The survey, conducted among nearly 21,000 alumni representing 132 institutions from 129 countries, covered batches from 1959 to 2013. It showed a steadily growing preference for self-employment among fresh graduates. In the 2000-2009 period, 25% of graduates opted for it while in the decade before that the figure was 14%.
The survey was carried out by Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which conducts the GMAT exam for admission to more than 6,000 graduate management programmes worldwide.
The US remains the most preferred job location for alumni from B-schools worldwide with Chinese and Indians taking the lead. As many as 38% of Chinese graduates preferred to work in the US, while 23% of Indian B-schoolers landed up in that country. The survey revealed that a quarter of B-school alumni across the world don’t work within their own country. While almost all B-school graduates from the US (97%) are likely to work in their own country, a majority of the Chinese are likely to work overseas (52%).
Canada leads the table for annual median salary at entry level with US$ 75,000, but it is the US which pays the highest mid, senior and executive-level salaries. The pay package for B-school alumni in India was among the lowest in the 18 countries listed in the survey.
“This is a robust survey results in this debut effort from direct collaboration with 132 business schools in 29 countries. A fascinating highlight of this year’s alumni survey is the wide reach of salary data. Seeing earnings data by job level for graduates of business school who work in India is helpful information to consider in one’s career planning and expectations,” said Michelle Sparkman Renz, director, research communications, GMAC.
As for B-school education, 77% of the alumni said it was financially rewarding. Old students also ensured that they keep in touch with the alma mater be it for mentoring scholars or for recruitment. Nearly 34% of recent alumni have kept contact with the faculty, while 28% attended alumni events. Around 43% of old students visited their alumni website, and an even higher 45% followed their B-school on social media.
The survey also revealed a shifting preference in functional domain. Since 2000, finance and accounting has been the dominating sector, overtaking the tradition general management. Emerging trends show that marketing, sales and consulting are the new areas of aspiration.
TCS Insights: Business students are currently more inclined to start their own businesses around the world than in years prior. International experience will play a critical role to those looking to succeed in this pursuit. Those aspiring to do business in North America after they graduate should attempt to spend time studying there to develop a knowledge of the culture along with their network of contacts.
45% Dip in MBA Degree Registrations in 4 Years
Source: Times of India | February 17, 2014
MUMBAI: In the last four years, the demand for an MBA degree in Maharashtra has dipped drastically—around 45%—with only around 53,000 candidates registering for the 2014-15 state common entrance test for admission to management colleges. In 2011-12, around 96,000 candidates had registered for the MH-CET for admission to MBA/MMS institutes. Experts attribute the decline in number of registrations to the slow economy globally. However, experts believe that this year’s registrations depict a slightly better picture compared with last year’s—though there is no data available to substantiate it. In 2013-14, admissions to MBA/MMS colleges in the state were done based on scores in common management admission test (CMAT), which was conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education. As CMAT was conducted thrice for these admissions, data on the number of students who had registered from Maharashtra alone are not available with the directorate of technical education (DTE).
But in 2013-14, the DTE had received applications from only 20,757 eligible candidates, which was the lowest since 2010 for over 45,000 seats in the state. Fearing a repeat of last year, the state government had decided to revert to its own CET this academic year. However, the response was still “not as good as it was before the CMAT”. As the last day of registrations has been extended up to Monday, officials expect the number to rise by 2,000.
“Of the 53,000 candidates, who will take the MH-CET this year, the number of eligible candidates will definitely be much more than last year’s—20,757. This year, there will be no group discussions and personal interviews, so more students might qualify. It is a hopeful trend for the students, B-schools and the industry,” said Apoorva Palkar, president of the Association of Indian Management Schools. She added that the biggest challenge for students this year is the introduction of the online MH-CET.
“The state is conducting CET only for 65% of the total seats; the rest of the seats are filled on the basis of other entrance exams, such as CAT and CMAT. Over 53,000 registrations for close to 30,000 seats are not bad,” said Dayanand Meshram, joint director of DTE.
Palkar said that in 2008, there were 15 registrations for every one seat, but now the ratio is slightly above 1:1, which is worrisome. However, she said the numbers are already on the uptick. Increase in the number of seats has also contributed to the poor ratio.
A state official said that the placement scenario is also not as good as it was two years ago. “After spending a lot of money on the course, students expect a decent placement offer,” said the official.
TCS Insights: Over the last four years, the number of Indian students in Maharashtra registering in programs to pursue an MBA has decreased by 45%. However, recent numbers are thought to be on the rise due to the recent changes in the application process. Through the removal of one-on-one interviews and group activities, students should have an improved opportunity to successfully apply to the MBA program of their choice.
Business Schools Enhance Job-Preparation Programs
Source: The Globe and Mail, Courtesy of Academica | January 2, 2014
Business schools in Canada have begun to revamp their career preparation services for students in the wake of a tougher job market, reports the Globe and Mail. The Queen’s University School of Business has added more of these services to its redesigned one-year MBA program. The school also recently changed the start date of its MBA program to January from May to create post-program opportunities for paid-internship work experience. Similarly, University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business has its 16-month MBA program students prepare for 2 recruitment seasons – one for a mandatory summer internship and the other for full-time employment after graduation. Sauder also plans to launch a new “e-portfolio” program for its 110 MBA students to market themselves using social media.
TCS Insights: Due to a rapidly changing job market, Canadian business schools are beginning to adapt. To better prepare students, institutions are making internships a requirement so graduates will not only earn a MBA but gain valuable work experience before they seek full-time employment.
B-School Slump
Source: Financial Chronicle via India NewsWatch, October 19, 2013
The economic slowdown has hit smaller management schools in India big time as campus hiring drops sharply, forcing many of them to shut shop. “Business schools are closing down due to poor quality of education, lack of right kind of faculty and dearth of proper infrastructure to run them,” said N K Dhooper Professor emeritus, IMT Centre for Distance Learning, Ghaziabad.
It’s a piquant situation for those managing or running B-schools in India. And there are over 3,500 of them. A majority of these schools had come up over the past decade or so on the back of the economic reforms that ushered in large-scale foreign direct investment into manufacturing and other sectors. These schools came up to cash in on the increasing demand for management graduates. But the demand has been sluggish in the recent past, due to the economic slowdown.
On one hand, there is a severe shortage of trained faculty, which varied industry estimates place at a high 50 per cent of the actual requirement. As a result, several of these schools are opting to fly down experienced faculty from developed markets to conduct core classes as well as short-term courses. Even some of the top-notch B-schools in the country seem to be facing this problem, albeit of a lower degree.
On the other hand, a number of B-schools have either been closed down or are facing closure due to their inability to attract sufficient numbers of students to get enrolled year after year.
While many B-schools have been closed down due to lack of basic infrastructure, a few others had to beat a retreat due to their inability to place their students with leading companies.
With the economic slowdown hitting corporate balance sheets across the board, a large number of B-schools other than the top 15-20 institutions like the IIMs are going through hard times on account of a sharp 40-50 per cent drop in campus hiring and a similar decline in the number of students opting for fresh admissions, said a recent study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).
Campus recruitments have fallen drastically. As a result, a large number of B-schools are unable to attract students. About 190 B-schools were closed down in 2012 in major cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Dehradun, among others.
Another 165 are struggling for survival, said the study.
The number of B-school seats for MBA programs in India grew almost fourfold from 95,000 in 2006-07 to 3,60,000 in 2011-12, resulting in a five-year compounded annual growth rate of 30 per cent. A lot of B-schools have either been closed or are facing closure due to their inability to attract sufficient numbers of students to get enrolled year after year. Apart from the IIMs and a handful of other top B-schools, it will be difficult for other business schools to get 100 per cent placements in the future. This capacity was built based on the projection of a 9-10 per cent economic growth. Unfortunately, job opportunities for MBAs have not grown in the same proportion during this period, thanks to the global financial crisis and the economic slowdown that followed.
“Business schools are closing down due to poor quality of education, lack of right kind of faculty and dearth of proper infrastructure to run them. Over the years, B-schools mushroomed minus the credentials and without verifying the potential for the right kind of students,” says N K Dhooper, professor emeritus & adviser at IMT Centre for Distance Learning, Ghaziabad.
Sankaran P Raghunathan, professor of international business and dean of The National Management School, Chennai, puts it in perspective. “B-schools are no different from businesses. The supply needs to be bought by the consumers for it to survive,” he says.
According to him, B-schools think they are making MBAs and students are the consumers. Whereas in reality, education is the product here and the industry, which recruits these management graduates, is the consumer. As a result, there is a mismatch between the expectations of the industry and the actual product being offered to the market.
The Assocham study said the global uncertainty affected placement patterns at B-schools. The number of placements has been fewer and average pay packages have been flat. Apart from the IIMs and a handful of other top B-schools, it will be difficult for other business schools to get 100 per cent placements in future.
B-schools have to improve infrastructure, train their faculty, work on industry linkages, spend money on research and knowledge creation and pay their faculty well in order to attract good talent, the study pointed out.
From the student’s point of view, the way one looks at an institution has changed in the present scenario. He is looking for a 1:1 match between the fee he pays for a course and the salary he is likely to get after the degree.
As a result, B-schools that charge low fees do not attract students, who think they will end up getting a lower salary. On the other hand, institutions that charge higher fees do draw students, but there are not enough jobs that offer high salaries.
“There is a complete mismatch in expectations among the three segments – B-schools, students and the industry. The expectations of each segment simply do not match that of the other,” says Sankaran.
A part of the blame also lies with the pathetic undergraduate education system. About 67 per cent of general graduates are not employable. Having wasted four years of their prime and finding themselves unemployable, they turn to MBA programmes. “But the B-schools find it difficult to make them learn in two years, especially after wasting four years. Hence, the input itself is a problem,” Sankaran points out.
Questions have also been raised as to whether the B-schools are doing a good job of imparting education and if they are delivering it in the right format?
People who run the undergraduate institutions also end up running MBA courses. As a result, the problem persists. “We as a country have failed to groom quality teachers over the past 25 years, because the system itself runs on approvals, and not on accreditations. As a result, anyone can teach anything in India. Thus, there is an input problem, process problem and hence an output problem,” Sankaran explains.
On its part, the industry needs to join hands with the B-schools to decide on what needs to be imparted to make these management graduates employable. The faculty problem has been there for several years, and it is only going to magnify over the next 10 years. In the US, people are trained to teach; India has failed to do this. Singapore focused on this area long before and it took 25 years for that country to establish itself as a leading player in the international education market. An estimated 44 million students study outside their home countries every year and industry estimates pegs the revenue potential of this industry at $44 trillion. “As a result of the country’s failure in establishing a proper system, we are now a leading importer of this service, instead of being an exporter,” Sankaran points out.
Education can be an economic engine, not only to meet our demand but also to take it to the overseas market, as it happened in the case of the IT industry, which today accounts for seven per cent of the country’s GDP and 30 per cent of exports. It should be noted that even the IT industry suffered for the initial two decades due to lethargy on the policy front. “Let us not do that mistake on the education front. The need of the hour is to invest on creating the right system,” says Sankaran.
According to Dhooper, when there is a shortage of really competent faculty, the recruitment of the right faculty becomes even more difficult for institutions. At the same time, it becomes very difficult to retain good talent. “In fact, recruiting faculty through references is a more reliable mode of recruitment; but finding such reference is not an easy task,” he feels. As for the newfound trend of flying down overseas faculty, Dhooper says this could at the most be an interim arrangement and not the end solution. Flying down professionals may be a temporary solution or maybe an add-on flavour to teaching.
“B-schools should look for industry experts having a taste for teaching on sabbatical or on a visiting basis, besides recruiting academicians from other B-schools or universities. They can also have arrangements for exchange of faculty to supplement or complement their pool of talent” says Dhooper.
NSB’s Sankaran is not so enthusiastic about using industry experts. “Institutions recruit people with industry experience in order to overcome shortage in faculty. But these people end up sharing only anecdotes, which do not really add much value,” he says.
Technology could be an option for B-schools to focus on in order to overcome faculty crunch, feels Dhooper. “Faculty shortage can be overcome by B-schools to a great extent by using technology and internet by having bipartite arrangements to help each other, wherever they can through exchange of faculty, without loss of time and without physical presence in the class through video conferencing,“ he says.
TCS Insights: This article highlights the growing gap between the top tier and the next level of academic institutes. It also highlights how Tier 2 institutes are not able to address student expectations such as quality education delivery and employment opportunities.
This presents an interesting opportunity for Canadian colleges to tap into those students who have not been successful in getting into the top Indian institutes due to limited intake. It also represents an opportunity for students as potential recruits for quality programs in Canada.
‘This experience is something that no classroom can teach you…’
By Sparsh Sharma
A group of 19 MBA students from Université Laval – located in Québec City in Canada, a city recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site – were on a study tour to India. This is the fourth time in five years that a team from the university came to India. Given their success in the previous years, the university decided to come back again this year.
The students travelled to different cities in India mainly to meet companies and promote their products and services and perfect their knowledge of India. The Canadian students represented 19 different companies in varied sectors like education, foods, manufacturing, IT, entertainment, beverages, etc.
Geneviève Marcotte, coordinator of the tour and a participant, answers some questions about the group’s visit:
How would the knowledge be useful to the group and the companies they represent?
GM: This experience is something that no classroom can teach you; after doing in-depth research before coming here and then meeting with your contacts on the field makes us realise the fruit of our labour, which is most certainly rewarding.
I believe that all students should take part in a trade mission like ours, as the experience shows you how small the world really is, and how accessible international markets are. International trade is important to both Canada and India. All the resources offered, in Canada and on the field here in India, were extremely useful for my future career of working in international business development as they were for all students involved in the study tour.
What was the methodology behind the study tour?
GM: Université Laval acts as a non-profit organisation that offers Canadian companies the opportunity to develop their international market. Our team is young, dynamic and benefits from accumulated knowledge of our 16 years of existence. Over 400 companies such as Bombardier, Maison Simons, Philips Lumec, etc. have already used our services. Our agents not only receive training from field experts but also work year-long to perfect their knowledge about the country abroad, its culture, economy, politics and language(s). Before getting into a trade mission like this, they do a market study to be sure about the best way to penetrate that particular market. It is a good opportunity for companies that desire to penetrate new markets and obtain professional, personalised service at an exceptionally competitive price. The University of Laval Commercial Missions is here to facilitate a period of transition to these new markets. From market potential evaluation to importation and exportation logistics, possible entry modes, technical representation as well as searching for distributors and clients, development agents, or the MBA students this time, worked three weeks in India to reach all goals of Canadian enterprise. Companies wanting to participate in our trade missions pay an amount which covers only cost for mission such as hotel, per diem and transport.
Would the products be marketed focusing on the Indian market?
GM: I think the business opportunity in India is immense but foreign companies must be very careful while entering this market. Though marketing is an important process in selling most products, the cultural challenges and political barriers are numerous. Obtaining permits can take long, finding the right distributor can be difficult and finding the right logistic strategy to make it all work is the key. Marketing will come once you have everything else in place, and if you have done all other things correctly, the publicity and advertisement will find results by itself with minimal effort.
Did your group’s impression about India change?
GM: It’s my second time in India and every time I discover a wonderful country with people wanting to learn more about us and teach a lot about their culture. It’s amazing. We thought India is a misinterpreted country: the advances that have been made, the technology available is impressive and the stereotype of ‘poor India’ is misleading. Businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) all across the country, offer a wide range of high-quality products and services, and I think many people confuse lower production prices to lower quality. When you look at a giant like Tata, and all of the industries they are able to thrive in, it gives you a great example of the wide range of available knowledge, and its influence on the global scale.
Nader Daher: “India is a very sense-awakening place. Doing business here is a full human experience.”
Jonathan Bouvrette: “India brings a model of cooperation through open-mindedness”
Simon Lemay-Roux: “India is an incredible experience – business-wise as well as personally.”
Marie-Pier Michaud: “Canada and India are so different that every aspect of India becomes so impressive.”
York University has over 300 corporate and internship partners
By Sparsh Sharma
Charmaine Courtis, executive director, student services and international relations, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Canada, was in India. HT Education caught up with her for an exclusive interview. Some excerpts:
Tell us about Schulich.
CC: It is the largest graduate school in Canada with 650 full-time and 450 part-time students. We offer 19 different specialisations. We are very flexible and students can opt for a bouquet of subjects. They can take classes for different subjects during the day or evening or the weekends. It is a program that suits your goal. The syllabus is same for the first year while in the second year, students can take up to two specialisations, for e.g. finance along with financial engineering or financial services or arts and media administration. The course can be completed in 16 months going straight through or in two years (latter includes a break for a three-month internship). The average age of our students is 28-29 years and their average work experience is five-six years. The acceptable range of GMAT scores is from 600 to 700+ but the average is 670. The female students’ population is 39% currently but we are working on increasing it.
We are very innovative and have a number of firsts like – specialised programs in entrepreneurial studies, MBA/JD (Juris Doctor) for lawyers, arts and media administration, nonprofit management, business sustainability, business ethics, real estate and infrastructure, health industry and public sector management. We launched a global mining management program in November 2011. We will officially open the school’s new Centre for Global Enterprise focused on the globalisation of small-to-medium-sized enterprises, soon. We have 75 partnerships with leading business management schools globally and more than 23,000 alumni living and working in over 90 countries.
What are the programs and specializations offered?
CC: Bachelor of business administration (BBA), international BBA(iBBA), master of business administration (MBA), international MBA, executive MBA, MBA/JD, master of fine arts, master of arts (MFA/MBA), MBA in India, master of public administration, master of finance (MF), and the PhD. Specialisations include the standard functional areas as well as many corporate sector areas accounting, economics, finance, marketing, operations management and information systems, organisation studies, strategic management. There is post-MBA diploma in advanced management, financial engineering diploma designed for those MBA grads who want to return for additional specializations and executive programs.
Are international tie-ups the new buzz word for universities in the West?
CC: Our school has a global orientation. Dean Dezso Horvath, a visionary, has led the school for 23 years and has always felt this was the direction to take the school. This global ethos is apparent in our programming and planning. We have several satellite centres internationally besides the main $100million facility in Toronto. We are running our India program with twinning partner SP Jain institute of management research in Mumbai and the third batch has started this January. It is good to see the program grow from an idea to reality. The students study in India for six months and in Toronto for the remaining duration. Seven years ago, we started hunting for places abroad and when it came to opening a campus in Asia, we chose India due to the growing middle-class population here, the limited availability and the high demand of top-level business schools, English being the language of instruction in most educational institutes and its use in official communication. GMR has offered to build us a campus near Hyderabad airport and will finish constructing it by 2013. We are hopeful that the government allows foreign universities to operate as standalone institutions by then. We will take our first class there for September 2013. The long term goal is to have as diverse a campus with students from several countries and tuition fees would be on the lines of that in the Toronto campus.
What are the part-time and full-time job opportunities for international students?
CC: There are several part-time jobs available on campus and in Canada. Students have to work on-campus for six months and can work off-campus after that for 20 hours per week. They can work as research or library assistant, parking attendant etc. on campus. There are internship opportunities for three-months during the program between first and second year, when they work full-time off campus. The average salary, post-MBA from Schulich, is CAD85,000 per annum in 2011. We have over 300 corporate and internship partners. Toronto, being the financial capital of Canada, salaries are higher there.
Moreover, we make students work on a mandatory strategy field study in their second year. They have to thoroughly study real companies, what areas they need to focus on to improve efficiency and net profits. Students give evidence for every conclusion they derive. Companies have been implementing those suggestions. This gives our students an edge and confidence to enter the corporate world. Canada is very open to educated people and gives work permits up to three-years, after which, students can apply for permanent residency, if they wish to continue living in the country.
Tell us more about the different rankings.
CC: We are among the top B-schools in the world. We have been ranked No. 2 in the Apen Institutes Grey Pinstripes for corporate social responsibility and business and sustainability, No. 9 globally in The Economist ranking and No. 11 globally in the Financial Times of London Executive MBA ranking. Schulich is second among Canadian schools in the 2011 global MBA ranking of Financial Times (FT). The FT MBA ranking pulls down all Canadian b-schools because of the importance they give to the salary of students at graduation.
What are the financial aids, scholarships and grants available to the students applying to study at Schulich?
CC: The tuition fee is CAD30,000 per annum. There are several entrance scholarships ranging from CAD5,000-CAD20,000. Only the top 20% of the class get them. Students have to meet the eligibility criteria and give interviews before getting the scholarships. There are many bursaries available too.
How is the student life and diversity at your campus?
CC: We are Canada’s global B-school with 55% international students coming from around the globe and with work experience in all sectors. A class comprises lawyers, doctors, business graduates, engineers and even those with an arts background. There are 52 clubs on the Schulich campus apart from several more at York University. York is the third largest university in Canada with 55,000 students. Our faculty is one of the best in the world and come from different countries. In student services and international relations, there are many professionals on teams working under me to help students with different needs – from admissions through to graduation. Likewise, we have a very large career development centre with programming that starts at the beginning of the program and carries through till placement.
Study Abroad
By Sparsh Sharma
B-schools abroad are realising the importance of their students learning additional languages besides English, as businesses become more globalised and new markets emerge
In most parts of the world, English is the standard language of business but it is not the only one in an increasingly global business environment, as more B-schools abroad are recognising. MBA programmes abroad have realised the importance of not just traditionally popular languages like French or Spanish but also newer ones like Arabic, Hindi, and Mandarin.
Key to success
Dr Jack McGourty, director of community and global entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School and faculty member teaching graduate courses in entrepreneurship, venture creation and technology management at Columbia University, USA, says, “No matter what your chosen career path is, today, being facile in more than one language will enhance a manager’s ability to navigate complex global business and cultural environments. Graduate business programmes should offer students alternative vehicles, integrated with curricular programmes, to increase proficiency in languages of choice.”
Columbia Business School’s Chazen Institute offers several programmes to enhance students’ language proficiency including MBA exchange, global immersion programme and the Chazen language programme, offering courses in Arabic, business English, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish at the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.
Charmaine Courtis, executive director, student services and international relations, Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada, says, “The international MBA (IMBA) programme at Schulich recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. This programme, right from the original format, has required students to develop a second language and an expertise in the region of the world where that language is the language of business. We recognised, two decades ago, that this was the only way to establish oneself in a global context. Having just recently attended an IMBA alumni-connect event, I was amazed to see how this has set our graduates apart. They are making a difference around the globe.”
At Cambridge Judge Business School in UK, one of the electives/ projects in the MBA requires students to learn Mandarin.
Dr. Jochen Runde, director of the MBA at the prestigious B-school, says, “This is a beginners’ course that is offered at the end of the academic year to our MBA students. For most of the attending students, successful completion of the course is a requisite for completing their studies. The course focuses on three language skills: listening, speaking and reading. Due to the complex nature of the Chinese writing system (characters rather than an alphabet), writing is not one of the main aims of this course. We are offering this course as a summer activity option because of the ever-growing importance of China in the world economy. The aim is to give our non-Mandarin speaking students an opportunity to develop some of the language skills they will need to make them more effective in this arena.”
At the leading Aarhus University (AU) of Denmark, the average student arrives already proficient in two or three languages. Lene Pederson, the MBA programme manager at AU’s School of Business and Social Sciences, says, “It’s amazing to find that some students are proficient in more than three languages too. A growing number of students from Asian countries already know English in addition to their native languages. Most of them then learn Danish language also, once they are here.”
Exchange programmes play a part
According to Laura Wood, director of international programmes and services, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Canada, exchange programmes play an important part in learning different languages and cultures.
“With an already global student body from 32 countries speaking 37 languages, Rotman encourages all students to further internationalise their degree through international exchange programmes, study tours, a module on doing business internationally and consulting projects or internships. Participation in these programmes certainly provides students with the opportunity to practice foreign language skills, contributing to both their personal and professional development as well as the B-school’s linguistic and cultural diversity,” says Wood.
Understanding culture also important
According to Narayanan Ramaswamy, partner of management consulting, KPMG India, it’s not only an issue of learning languages. “It’s not a language issue alone. Understanding the culture and being culturally-sensitive is as important as communication skills. A good manager is required to develop additional language skills. It is a major differentiator in a competitive global market. Knowledge of more languages is always welcome.”
Carnegie Mellon University professors launch online courses for Indian students
Source: The Times of India via PwC – EdLive
The Academic Financial Trading Platform (AFTP), the first massively open online course (MOOC) platform dedicated exclusively to business education, launched its courses in November 2012 to a growing community of Indian MBA students and executives. Funded by the PMC Group, AFTP was founded in 2011 by two Carnegie Mellon University professors, Raj Chakrabarti (systems engineering) and Anisha Ghosh (financial economics) with the aim of delivering an integrated curriculum of business courses to interested students anywhere in the world. The MOOCs have been taking the higher education industry by storm, offering university-level courses from the world’s top schools online for free to anyone, anywhere, through video lectures and weekly assessments that allow students to learn at their own pace. In the wake of the global economic crisis, increasing unemployment rates, and the rising cost of education, AFTP aims to teach a class of skills that are different from those taught on existing MOOC platforms such as Coursera, edX or Udacity.
Students who successfully complete the courses obtain formal certification of mastery in mainstream business subjects such as investments, macroeconomics and corporate finance. But while the conventional B-school curriculum ends there, the AFTP training continues, encompassing application of the acquired skills to real-world decisions. E.g., students gain access to the latest and most cutting-edge stock market prediction techniques, trading strategies, and valuation methods developed at the world’s top research centres. As a part of the AFTP coursework, students use the website to back test the performance of these techniques on decades of historical stock market data, and compare their performance to that of top investment houses in the US. Then, they learn how to apply these techniques either to manage their own personal finances, or in the context of their jobs.
GTU Initiative for Global Exposure for GTU MBA Students from different institutions across Gujarat
We are highly thankful to Gujarat Technological University(GTU) for organising a Summer Camp Program at University of Alberta (UoA), Canada and for providing us a golden opportunity to know about learning systems in Canada, at a world-class University. The classes of Summer Camp Program started on 27th June 2011. We, a total of 35 students, are attending the Summer Camp Program at UoA, Canada. Professsor Bhavin Pandya says that we are writing a new chapter in the history of higher education in India, since this is the first such effort by any state University in India.
We are indebted to Dr. A. K. Aggarwal, Honorable Vice-Chancellor, GTU for envisioning and organizing the Summer Camp Program for us. This trip is proving to be a great learning experience for us. The professors here are very responsive and are trying to make the maximum efforts to make our stay comfortable and to open our minds to a truly a new world. In a globalized and diversified economy, higher education would not be complete without such an intensive international exposure. During the 40 days program, we are looking forward to explore the exciting temple of knowledge in an optimal way .
Most of us are the first generation University students from our families. GTU’s policy of sending those, who were academically the best from all over Gujarat has brought us to Alberta. Those opportunities will permit us to learn about other cultures and international businesses, which will open paths towards shaping a good career in a powerful way – and the we will tremendously benefit by studying at UoA. We are fortunate today to be in Alberta “There have been active discussions around the campus among students and faculty to further institutionalize and internationalize the campus.”
We are grateful to Dr. A. K. Aggarwal, Honorable Vice-Chancellor, GTU to address us from India through a telephonic conference at the first lecture of the Summer Camp on 27th June 2011 at UoA, Canada. He discussed about the objectives of the program and emphasized his vision to make GTU MBA Program of the highest academic standard. He said that today’s MBA programs have to prepare young person for global placements. Dr. Aggarwal asked the GTU students to work hard along with the University to build excellent careers for themselves. By doing that, he said that, they would be able to build Gujarat, India and the world of tomorrow.