Foreign Universities have to enter India with the help of the Chinese!!

The Ministry of HRD which regulates Universities through the University Grants Commission is now proposing to pass a set of regulations called the UGC (Establishment and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Educational Institutions) Rules to allow foreign Universities to set up campuses in India.

The twist in these rules comes in the stipulation that only the top 400 (why 400 and why not 100 or 350 or 500?) Universities as ranked by the Chinese body would be allowed in!!  I can understand the fascination that Indian have toward anything American and so it comes to me as a big surprise that these rules now stipulate the Chinese ranking.  So, any American University which wants to come into India should now be ranked by the Chinese before they can apply.  While the American themselves have embraced "Made in China" wholeheartedly, I wonder how these American Universities will react to the Indian dictat!!


Of course, the European ranking by Times and a for-profit entity called QS would also be considered.   But then, what happens if a University is ranked 400 by the Chinese and 401 by the Europeans!!

I believe that the Indian MHRD and the UGC have foregone a wonderful opportunity to set up their own ranking system to rank the world's Universities and then take the top 300 or 400 of them to allow them into India.  Once again the Indians have succumbed to the line of control drawn by the Chinese.

While the rules stipulate that foreign Universities should be in existence for at least 20 years before they can enter India, they have not specified how long they should have been ranked in the top 400 by the Chinese.  I wonder what will happen to the 400th University that is allowed into India after which it loses that ranking; will it be sent out of India?

 In the meanwhile, the waiting continues ...

Sankaran Raghunathan
Dean

Foreign Universities in India: Indian Ministry of HRD tries to govern through regulations what it cannot do by law

In a very interesting move, the Ministry of HRD which regulates Universities through the University Grants Commission is now proposing to pass a set of regulations called the UGC (Establishment and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Educational Institutions) Rules to allow foreign Universities to set up campuses in India.

See the news release at http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=99225 with its grammatical and spelling mistakes!!

Mr. Kapil Sibal, a lawyer and the former Minister tried to get the same thing done through an Act of law to be passed through the Parliament which is yet to take it up.  What the lawyer could not do, the current Minister, an MBA from Temple University USA, may succeed by a clever play of governing through rules and regulations.  This is how bureaucrats have always been governing the country through extra-legal means.

This set of rules comes on the heels of the Supreme Court decision that struck down the rules framed by the AICTE, another body of the MHRD, through which the AICTE has been claiming to regulate all the MBA programs in the country.

The new rules that the MHRD is framing through which it seeks to allow foreign Universities to set up campuses in India and award degrees specifies that the foreign Universities can set up a legal entity under The Companies Act under Section 25 which would make it a non-profit entity and thus no distribution of surplus funds is possible.  It also stipulates a deposit of US$ 4 million (Rs.25 crores; thanks to the Rupee depreciation) which may be forfeited if the foreign University does "anything" that violates the rules.

The degrees that these foreign Universities are allowed to issue would be considered foreign degrees!!  Therefore, there is still the need for these degrees to be equated to the Indian ones through an application to the Association of Indian Universities (AIU).  I do not understand why these new UGC rules that allow the Universities to award the degrees cannot stipulate the equivalencies instead of making these foreign Universities to run around the AIU.  This is like telling the Hyundai car company that their car completely made in Chennai would be treated like a foreign car and therefore has to undergo all the "import" formalities!!


I wonder why the MHRD is going around doing this. There is nothing in the law currently that states that a foreign University cannot set up its campus in India.  Any body, can apply to UGC and set up a University under the existing laws.

I am reminded of a situation where my friend's car was towed away by the cops from its parking spot when he was visiting me at my office.  When he called the cops to recover his car, he asked them why they towed his car and they said that it was parked illegally.  He said that there were no NO-PARKING signs, for which the cops asked him if there were any PARKING signs.  In India, it seems that what is not specifically provided for, is taken to be prohibited!!

My question is all this is simple:  How many Foreign Universities are lining up outside the MHRD doors in Delhi wanting to set up their campus in India?

- Sankaran Raghunathan

Internships in India for international students - study abroad in India

Internships Globally - Searching through the maze

Here is some information on how to find internships in India, especially for international students.  Several of these internships are part of a study abroad program.

Here are some portals that list several global internships that are available in India for international students:
www.goabroad.com
www.studyabroad.com
www.gooverseas.comwww.iiepassport.org

www.goabroad.com lists about 205 internship programs in India from 73 organizations.  In this site, search is possible only by country and subject area.  For example, there are 17 internship programs in Information Systems in India offered by 12 organizations.  Cost or fees for the program is not a search criteria.  Similarly, there is no search criteria for Paid or unpaid internships or for scholarships.  These additional search criteria would make the site more friendly for students.

www.studyabroad.com lists 56 internship programs in India.  Out of these, only 4 are internships in Information Systems.  Here again, you cannot search by additional criteria such as whether they are paid/unpaid internships and by the fee/cost or scholarships.

www.gooverseas.com has 43 internship listings for India.  This site is driven by reviews submitted by those who have attended these programs.  This site also does not provide for narrowing down the search by cost or stipend.

www.iiepassport.org is a site maintained for The Institute for International Education (IIE).  This site lists 35 internship programs in India.  Out of these 35 programs, 11 of them offer scholarships.  Of these, only 2 programs are semester length programs and that cost less than $15,000 for the entire semester costs.  Only one of the programs is in the Informations Systems field.  Clearly, this level of search granularity helps study abroad advisors and students to identify programs that are suited to them.  IIEPASSPORT.ORG site can be searched by Country, Term, Format, Language, Subject, Level, Cost and Scholarship.

www.goabroad.com has the largest number of listings - 3668 internships from 814 organizations worldwide.  Out of these 3,668 internships, only 205 are in India.  www.iiepassport.org has 1,067 internships worldwide.  www.studyabroad.com and www.gooverseas.com do not provide a feature to search by internships worldwide; you can only search by a country or region.

Several providers/programs are listed in all these 4 portals and so there is considerable overlap.  However, the sheer number of listings over 3,600 in goabroad.com demonstrates the growing interest in internships among students.  But, if we search for business oriented internships, there are only less than 1,000 programs.  This could be due to the fact that most business schools do not offer internships for credit.


Most of these internships are stand alone programs offering only internship experience.  These are offered by commercial companies who are in the placement service and they do not necessarily offer internship for academic credit.  For the typical student, however, what matters is the combination of academic course work and an academic internship for credit over the summer or a semester.  Quite a few programs offer such an academic semester program with credits for internship.

We, at the National Management School, offer an internship program for business school students who major in Management Information Systems.  This is a 15-credit Semester Abroad program in which 6 credits are toward a 300 hour paid internship at Capgemini and 9 credits are from 3 courses.  Not only is this a paid internship, the total cost for the student including international air fare, visa, academic tuition fee, housing, meals, travel, etc. comes to less than $12,500.  A matching scholarship offered by our partners brings the cost down to about $10,500.  The whole idea is to make the cost of this program almost the same as the in-state cost so that for the student there is tremendous value.  The University at Albany is the partner who awards the credits and transcripts to the students.

We hope to expand this program to other majors in business schools in the near future.

Paid International Internship in India as part of a Study Abroad program for a semester

We have partnered with University at Albany and Capgemini, world's fourth largest software company to bring an exciting program for American undergraduate students to study abroad.  Beginning with Spring 2014, The National Management School will host a cohort of American students from various US universities.  These students who decide to study abroad in India for a semester will get to do 6 credits of Internship at Capgemini's Mumbai offices for 8 weeks and also study 3 courses at NMS as part of the 15-credit program. 

Interested students can read about this on Capgemini's website at http://bit.ly/cgintern.

University at Albany (SUNY) will award the credits and transcripts for these students.  Students may apply online at University at Albany site at http://bit.ly/uacgnms

This internship is open to American citizens or permanent residents who are rising juniors or seniors in the Business School with a major in Management Information Systems.

Come; learn how to win in India. If you can succeed in India, you can be a success anywhere in the world!!

Solving Detroit's Problems

America has several things going for it.  However, I am going to focus on just two things that foreigners salivate about – American education and H-1B visas to work in America.  This will make my job easier in recommending solutions to the Detroit problem. 

Let me first handle American education.  Chinese and Indians are the two largest foreign groups of students making a beeline to US universities in spite of high tuition fees.  So, let me suggest that the Michigan Government decide to offer admission to the first 100,000 undergraduate international student applicants  at a tuition fee of not more than $10,000 per year.  At this tuition rate, getting 100,000 foreign students to the state university of Michigan is not at all a problem.  Every foreign student coming to any of the State Universities of Michigan will spend another $10,000 on living expenses and that is $1 billion of spending that will galvanize the Michigan economy.  Take a surcharge from that to pay Detroit.

The second suggestion is to issue 200,000 H1B visas to foreign employees of IT companies as a one-time emergency measure with 2 conditions – (1) the companies need to pay a surcharge of $10 per hour of work to the Michigan State Government for the first 5 years, and (2) the IT companies should employ these foreign H1B workers only in the state of Michigan for 5 years.   IT companies such as IBM, Accenture, CSC, Capgemini, TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, and, Wipro will gladly grab these H1B visas.  This will fetch $4 billion in such surcharge per year.  The state taxes from the employee income is another $500 million.  These employees will spend on housing and other assets in the state that will also enrich the state economy.  Use a surcharge from this to pay for Detroit.

My job as an academician is to offer suggestions; I have done it now.  Do not ask me how to implement these suggestions.  It is for the Michigan Governor and the Detroit Mayor to figure out; they are the ones who have the mess to clean up.

- Sankaran Raghunathan

Dean, The National Management School

 

Making an American Undergraduate (bachelor’s) education come true – Part 2

The American Undergraduate Degrees and how they are different from the Indian Bachelor’s Degree

In India, a student usually enters a college or university after Plus Two, enrolling into a specific degree with a major, selected at the time of applying to the school. In the three or four years of the bachelor’s degree program, the student takes a predetermined series of courses in a predetermined order. In other words, the student’s college coursework and route to graduation is charted out very clearly at the time of entering the program. At the end of three or four years, the student gets a B.A., B.Sc., B.E., B.Tech., or B.Arch degree.

The American undergraduate program on the other hand is extremely flexible, and can be completed in three to seven years (or more), with the student taking as many courses as they can afford to pay for, in the areas that interest them. Students do not have to declare a major until they have completed two years of college, or some level of basic coursework. The average American undergraduate degree program takes four years, and the student completes around 120 credits of study in subjects that include General Education, Core Requirements, and Free Electives.

Interestingly, a lot of American students do not complete all of their undergraduate coursework at the same institution. They do the courses in multiple institutions. The choice of these institutions is determined by factors like cost, proximity to home town, choice of courses offered, and the ease of getting into the institution. The varieties of institutions that offer college level courses are community colleges, four-year colleges, private and public universities. Community colleges are two year public institutions that offer Associate Degrees. Four year colleges give the two year Associate and the four year Bachelor’s Degrees. Universities can offer the Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral programs and degrees.

This movement from institution to institution is possible because of a concept called “College Credit Transfer”. Any student who applies to a US university will see the following options listed in the choice of programs – First Year student, Transfer Student. This is because a lot of students find it more convenient to study closer to home at a Community College or a 4-year College, and then transfer for the final two years to a four-year College or to a university.

 (See this section on Wikipedia for a concise description of how college transfers work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_transfer).

Two year degrees come in a variety of flavors: Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, Associate of Applied Sciences, and very specific two year degrees that train for a specific career or vocation. The two-year Associate of Arts degree is awarded after two years and sixty credits of course work. The course work can be targeted towards a specific major such as sociology or economics, or it can be in General Studies. The course work can be transferred to another institution for a higher level degree, if that institution accepts the level of the coursework.

So while getting an Associate degree, a student who aims for higher education should be smart enough to target the requirements of the next level of study while choosing the coursework for the Associate degree. The structure of the Associate degree starts with the next degree, the Bachelor’s degree, and the major that the student is interested in. This will help the student work backwards and structure the Associate degree to fulfill the requirements of the bachelor’s degree. Knowing which university the student wants to go to makes this process easier, as the student can then tailor the associate degree according to the university’s requirements.

Making an American Undergraduate (bachelor’s) education come true – Part1

An American four-year Bachelor’s degree (undergraduate degree as it is called) is a great educational experience. It combines unique campus experience and quality of teaching found only in US universities. It has content and style.

Indian parents recognize the American bachelor’s degree to have value, but not many families send their children to the USA for a bachelor’s degree. The reasons for this are many:
- A bachelor’s degree in the USA is quite expensive, and not many can afford four years of tuition and hostel expenses
- Parents are not comfortable sending eighteen year old students just out of high school so far away
- Parents may not feel that children are mature enough to handle the transition
- Children may not feel capable of going away from familiar surroundings just yet
- Children may feel doubts about their ability to handle American style teaching, and cope with the cultural changes at the same time

Recognizing these misgivings, many American universities are now entering into collaborations with Indian institutions where students can do two years in India, and then complete the remaining two years in the USA. This collaboration comes mainly in two flavors:
- the 2+2 program where the student gets an Associate degree at the end of the first two years, and then transfers to ANY American university of choice
- the twinning program where the student completes two years in India, and transfers to the specific university with which their institution has a collaboration

The primary differences between these two types of collaborations are:
- at the end of the 2+2 program the student gets a Associate degree; at the end of two years of the twinning program, there is no degree awarded. The degree is awarded only after four years.
- in the 2+2 program, the student can transfer to any American university for which they fulfill the transfer criteria; in the twinning program, the American university is pre-determined

This 2+2 structure is possible because of the nature of the American bachelor’s degree program. Every undergraduate program in the USA requires the student to complete a given number of credits in General Education which covers English Language, Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and Quantitative techniques. This is regardless of whether the major is arts, science, business or engineering.

The split program described above allows the student to complete the General Education requirements in India, in a homely atmosphere, with the support of family, and at less expense, and then transfer to an American university for their education in America to complete the major requirements. It allows the student to get familiar with American style curriculum and teaching. It helps the student to do independent research and team collaborations, which are important in an American curriculum. It helps the student handle any weaknesses the student might have in math or sciences or any other subject, here in India, before moving to the USA.

Doing part of the degree in India reduces the cost for families and makes it possible for more students to get an American bachelor’s degree. The tuition cost in the 2+2 program can get reduced by 50% depending on the program and facilities offered.

The 2+2 program enables the students to get American style education, here in India, and facilitates a transfer in the third year, when the student is older, and presumably more mature and capable of being away from home. This program helps students realize their dream of an undergraduate American education

How to save a sinking ship

I was seeing the news about the sinking cruise ship off the shores of Italy and it suddently struck me that this whole episode can teach us lessons on how to handle the sinking European economy.

When the ship got hit on one side and water entered, the ship tipped to that side and started sinking. The other side of the ship lifted up because that side became lighter. There was not enough weight on the other side to lift up the side which had the hole.

Currently with the European countries hit by heavy debt, it is like the side of the ship that has the hole. If we are to prevent the global crisis, then we need to put enough weight on the Asian side of the globe so that we lift up the European side of the ship that is sinking. However, what is happening is that, in fear, investors are pulling out of Asia; this is equivalent to what happened to the ship - the other side lifts up and gets dragged down.

Asian Government have a responsibility not only to their countries but to save the global ship that is sinking. They need to invest heavily in their countries - Government spending has to go up, consumption should be encouraged, and private investment should be encouraged and made easier not only for local investors but also for foreign investors. They should do so by closing the shutters on that side of the ship that has the potential to drag the good side of the ship. This means that Asian Governments should ensure that the contagion that is sinking the European side does not spread to Asia.

India has a tremendous opportunity now to show economic leadership.

Sankaran Raghunathan
Dean of
National Management B School, India 

How to Control Black Money

Prof. P.V. Indiresan, our Chairman, has written a wonderful article on how to control black money. The article appeared in The Hindu BusinessLine in October 2011; the link is here:
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/p-v-indiresan/article2559544.ece?homepage=true

I think that it is a great idea to issue a high value currency note, say Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes, with a time limit. After the expiry, the expired notes have to be deposited in a bank account to gain value. This way, black money in the form of cash stashed away needs to come out in the open through bank accounts.

comments are welcome.

National Management B School in India

Reserve Bank of India raises rates

The Reserve Bank of India has raised the rates once again by 0.5% in the belief that this will curb inflation. This seems to me like the behavior of a student in Economics 101 class who simply and blindly believes that the relationship between interest rate and inflation is so straightforward that he uses interest rate as the only answer to handle inflation. I wish our RBI Governor and the mandarins of our macro economic policy are more creative.

National Management B School, Chennai

India-US Joint Statement - Hillary Clinton and SM Krishna

I post below portions of the statement issued by the Indian External Affairs Minister Mr. Krishna and the US Secretary of State Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton during her visit to India in July 2011, that are relevant to education:

Education, Innovation, Science and Technology
• The United States and India plan to host a Higher Education Summit in Washington DC on October 13 to highlight and emphasize the many avenues through which the higher education communities in the United States and India collaborate.
• The United States and India plan to expand its higher education dialogue, to be co-chaired by the US Secretary of State and Indian Minister of Human Resource Development to convene annually, incorporating the private/non-governmental sectors and higher education communities to inform government-to-government discussions.
• As part of the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative (OSI), the two governments announced the publication of their requests for proposals from post-secondary educational institutions that support OSI’s goals of strengthening teaching, research, and administration of both US and Indian institutions through university linkages and junior faculty development.
• The United States created the Passport to India initiative to encourage an increase in the number of American students studying and interning in India. The leaders recognized the great bridge of mutual understanding resulting from the more than 100,000 Indian students studying and interning in the United States.
• The United States’ Department of Energy and India’s Department of Atomic Energy signed an Implementing Agreement on Discovery Science that provide provides the framework for cooperation in accelerator and particle detector research and development at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.
• The India-US S&T Endowment Board, established by Secretary Clinton and Minister Krishna in 2009, plans to award nearly $3 million annually to entrepreneurial projects that commercialize technologies to improve health and empower citizens. The two sides are strongly encouraged by the response to this initiative, which attracted over 380 joint India-US proposals. The Endowment plans to announce the first set of grantees by September 2011.
• The India-US S&T Forum, now in its tenth year, has convened activities that have led to the interaction of nearly 10,000 Indian and US scientists and technologists.
• As a follow up to the successful India-US Innovation Roundtable held in September 2010 in New Delhi, the two sides agreed to hold another Innovation Roundtable in early 2012.
• India and the United States plan to host their third annual Women in Science workshop in September 2011.

National Management B School, Chennai 

For-profit legal structure for higher education in India

The 1986 Indian National Policy Statement on Education states as follows: "In the interests of maintaining standards and for several other valid reasons, the commercialisation of technical and professional education will be curbed. An alternative system will be devised to involve private and voluntary effort in this sector of education, in conformity with accepted norms and goals". The Indian Government and the policy makers are wrongly interpreting the Indian Constitution in stating this policy. The Indian Constitution states that the State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to education. This duty does not extend to the State preventing any private entity from delivering education, in any format, especially when the State's economic capacity is exhausted.

In implementing this policy for "non-commercialisation", the policy makers are opposed to the setting up of higher educational institutions as a for-profit entity adopting the Limited Joint-Stock Company format under the Indian Companies Act. Commercialisation of education can happen even in the non-profit format as has been happening now by educational bodies set up as a Society or a Trust. The Government and the task force that has been set up is confusing "commercialisation" with the "for-profit" legal structure of an organisation to deliver education. More importantly, the policy does not define "commercialisation". If the Government means "profiteering" as a definition of commercialisation, then the current system of education under non-profit societies and trusts are profiteering blatantly.

Commerce happens once there is a buyer and a seller irrespective of their legal form. In higher education, the student pays money to buy education from the institution that sells or delivers education; so commerce happens here, even in Government Institutions such as the IIT or the IIMs.

A main reason given by the policy statement to avoid "commercialisation" is to maintain standards. This assumes that commercial organisations cannot maintain standards and that only non-commercial organisations can deliver quality. Again, something that has been proved very wrong, going by the quality of higher education delivered by scores of government or government-approved private institutions that are run by Societies or Trusts.

The policy statement also states that "an alternative system will be devised to involve private .. effort in this sector of education". However, this alternative system has not been discussed nor proposed so far.

The Supreme Court of India has established very clearly that the private sector and any individual has the fundamental right to set up educational institutions. The Constitution does not deny the private sector from setting up a for-profit educational institution. It only makes it a duty of the government to provide education. It does not make the Government the sole provider.

The task force that is examining and proposing the current legislations in the education sector should bear this in mind. Any proposal to deny any segment of the society the right to offer education in any format will be subject to protracted legal action.

It may actually be better for the Government to allow the for-profit format in higher education and derive revenues from service tax on tuition incomes and income tax on surpluses made by the institutions. Currently, the Government is foregoing that share of the revenue from these society or trust run institutions who anyway profiteer. In the present set up, the AICTE restricts the number of students that an approved educational institution can admit and thus creates an artificial shortage of seats, enabling these so called non-profit educational institutions to charge enormous fees, that put higher education out of bounds. Instead, if the Government recognizes the right of the private sector to provide education under the for-profit format, then the fees will automatically be market determined and become affordable. The income that the Government makes from these for-profit entities can then be reploughed into education at the primary and secondary levels, which is where the Constitution makes it a duty of the State to provide free education.

National Management B School, India

Integrative Learning At NMS: A Multi-Layered Approach To Education

The latent knowledge in any learning program is made potent only through a pedagogy that can bring this power of knowledge out. NMS’s Integrative Learning program follows a unique teaching methodology that helps convert latent knowledge into potent power and empowers our students.

NMS B School has a three-dimensional curriculum in place as part of which the students study one functional discipline, three industry verticals and also included are two country studies. This ensures that students have a holistic curriculum that covers the key aspects of business in today’s world.

The three-dimensional curriculum is supported by 20 hours of understudy, about 80 hours of a Business Plan Preparation course and about 80 hours of a Consulting Practicum. The focus of all such programs and studies is on specific, real-time and outcome-based projects.

The students are also involved in a 6-week internship at the end of the first year and that gets them out on the field to learn hands-on what they have been preparing themselves for. It gives them a first-hand experience of playing the roles that they are expected to play in the future and maximize their learning.

Not just this, students at NMS take part in additional activities like Golf, Organic Farming, Sailing etc since NMS believes that these activities teach lessons as fundamental as the ones learnt in classrooms. With this multi-layered approach to teaching, NMS aims to turn out well-rounded business leaders who understand businesses on a deeper and broader level.

With that we hope that this series on taking a closer look at the Integrative Learning Program of NMS helped you gain an insight into our approach to education. Stay tuned to hear more from us

Integrative Learning At NMS: Nurturing Better Managers

In our series about Integrative Learning at NMS, today we look at how the Integrative Learning program inculcates basic managerial skills among its students.

NMS School organizes a Basic Managerial Skills programs for its students in every batch. This program aims at enhancing students’ existing managerial skills and preparing them for sustainable and scalable career. The program is conducted primarily through classroom sessions. Supplementing the classroom teaching are a host of case studies and group discussions that help students analyze real-life business situations and derive learning from them. In addition there are individual and group exercises designed to give the students different people situations to work with. All this is topped with video recordings that simulate contexts for the students to work with.

Fitted into this program structure are topics that cover various aspects that form the flesh of a managerial role: communication, leadership and people dynamics. Topics like communications skills, presentation skills and the basics of writing hone the existing communication faculty of the students. Leadership skills are covered as a separate module in this program. People skills are sharpened by way of sessions on conducting group discussions and interviews as well as on goal setting and motivation.

The Basic Managerial Skills program is a key component of the Integrative Learning at NMS. The program aims at nurturing better managers who can lead their teams from the front in the corporate world and thus giving the world better business leaders.

Integrative Learning At NMS: Outbound Program

Last week we saw how NMS B School provides its students the advantage of Integrative Learning that combines Functional Discipline, Industry Analysis and Country Study to offer participants the kind of exposure that is not otherwise possible in a typical management program. Integrative Learning at NMS follows a comprehensive approach to ensure that the students constantly learn, both in and outside the classroom. This week we take a look at some of the components that go into nurturing corporate-ready students through Integrative Learning.

The courses at NMS begin with a one-week Orientation session that attempts to bring all students on the same page and homogenize a class consisting of students from diverse backgrounds.

What NMS students attend additionally is an Outbound Program that aims at cultivating an atmosphere of trust among the students, exposing and alleviating any fears or inhibitions they may be harbouring, helping the students understand themselves better and bond with peers while experiencing a sense of adventure.

NMS achieves these in two ways.

The first is by involving students in a Group Sharing exercise where students share something personal about themselves in a moderated environment with the help of an experienced facilitator. Given that the students are to embark on an educational journey together, this exercise helps them to know others in the group and also discover themselves, an essential exercise for a group that will be exchanging cultures and contexts over the span of their course.

The second is by engaging the students in group activities and exercises like a night drive in the forest, trekking, rappelling, rock climbing, kayaking etc. These activities help the students bond better and prepare to work in a team not only for the forthcoming educational journey but also through life.

Students who were part of the Outbound Program last year enjoyed the challenges that the planned activities presented and how they made the students face their fears. Not to mention, all of them came back enriched with each other’s stories and more emotionally bonded than before the program.

India As The Global Destination For Education

As early as 500 years Before Christ, India had become an International Centre of Learning for students from South East Asia. Scholars from China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and the likes were drinking from the fountains of knowledge that were the universities of Taxila (Takshashila) and Nalanda. Two universities that had a formidable reputation, when it came to both the extent and depths of knowledge that was available to be absorbed by a willing student, were the pride of place in ancient India. And from then on, India has carved its own niche in the field of education, building on its heritage.

Modern day amenities, the ease of travel and globalization have ensured that more and more students have access to the repositories of knowledge across the world. And that has truly made knowledge borderless and added more dimensions to existing know-how by allowing global experiences to enhance existing knowledge. In this context, let us take a moment to see where India stands in the global education scenario at present and what the world can look forward to.

If we embark on a cost-benefit analysis at the outset, the cost of education in India set against the standards it is offered at makes it an immediate cost-effective proposition for obtaining world-class education. And this fact applies to education across streams right from technical education to education in arts and culture, enabling students with varied set of interests to access India’s knowledge at very reasonable costs. And this is the primary reason for International students to come to India and seek education.

Couple that advantage with the unique cultural fabric that India is, with roots from thousands of years ago and branches growing constantly into the new skies. India is a strange mix of tradition and progressive environments that lets students experience a very different cultural context in education. When it comes to International students, this increases their gamut of educational contexts to include both Western and Eastern philosophies as well as multifarious approaches to every aspect of education and becomes another reason why students seek India as a preferred educational destination.

To top that, India’s colonial heritage includes English as one of the official languages of the country and that makes it multiple times easier for International students to learn as well as adjust socially in the country. English being the medium of instruction in most educational institutions gives students a good reason to consider studying in India and it remains India’s edge in the world.

These advantages are supplemented sufficiently by the pioneering work that Indians have and are doing in various fields ranging from science and technology to literature and the arts. Indians continue to constitute a significant percentage of the student community internationally and act as brand ambassadors for brand India. Their work speaks volumes for the research and development environment in India and the technological development taking place in the country. International students prefer this dynamic environment and look forward to the opportunity of learning from all the work being done here. Right from biopharmaceutical companies like Biocon that are setting new milestones in research, world-class research institutes like IISc and TIFR, professional institutions like the various Indian Institutes and the groundbreaking work being done in music, literature and the arts India attracts International students with a thirst to learn for the innumerable learning opportunities it offers.

Be it the ancient cultural roots, a search for new and exciting grounds to explore, the opportunity to explore and learn its art, a chance to make a change at grass-root levels, the easy access, the quality on offer, the exposure or the cost, the truth is that more and more International students are choosing India as their educational destination. In any institution and university across the geography of the country, a significant presence from around the globe is being felt and there is a huge potential for knowledge and cultural exchange in the offing. These are Easterlies and Westerlies of a new kind and the winds of change are beginning to blow. It is for us to ensure more and more knowledge flies through across the borders and makes the globe a richer place.

The NMS Advantage: Integrative Learning And Thought Leadership

Having taken a look at the advantages that NMS’s model of education coupled with industry exposure and cultural/business contexts lends to the students, we now look at the approach that NMS has adopted towards learning and how it is looking at nurturing Thought Leadership among business leaders.

NMS believes in Integrative Learning that combines Functional Discipline, Industry Analysis and Country Study to offer participants the kind of exposure that is not otherwise possible in a typical management program. And that is exactly what we are trying to achieve through the design of the program at NMS.

NMS is also positioning itself as a Thought Leader by launching the WHITESPACE Executive Session Series for Senior and Middle management. This series includes seminars on a wide range of topics conducted by the NMS faculty. It is here that NMS leverages its intellectual capital and makes a perceivable difference to issues that are high on priority when it comes to the corporate agenda.

The whole idea at NMS is to let students Discover as much as they can during their association with NMS. And to leverage that learning innovate in business contexts in the future.

With International Collaboration, International Faculty, International Curriculum, and even International students in the classroom, NMS offers students truly global exposure and a global network; enabling them to add value in the global corporate context. NMS’s commitment to excellence in management education and to borderless knowledge ensures that International students have the dual advantage of feeling at home with the delivery model and yet being exposed to a strongly different cultural, economic and business scenario so as to maximize their learning. By inviting International students to be part of the NMS experience we extend that commitment to students across the globe and enable them to be part of a dynamic and diverse student community that will define the future of business.

The NMS Advantage: Learning Across Contexts And Cultures

Continuing our series where we take a look at the NMS advantage and the NMS edge for students entering the world of management education, today we focus on the differentiating factor that NMS provides by combining global education with an Indian context.

At present, 8 Indian companies figure in the Fortune 500 list and many more are seen as global players when it comes to their respective areas of expertise. While they are in a position to compete with the best in the world, the cultural and people context with which they were built is starkly different from a lot of companies in the West. And that difference is seen at the level of daily operations as well. Owing to NMS’s collaboration with many of these Indian companies, International students have a chance to observe the Indian approach to business and learn from these contexts. This knowledge, coupled with the exposure they receive back home, gives them a wide platform of business development contexts to work with.

NMS is located in the heart of the IT corridor in Chennai. It takes students right where the action is. And the student housing, which matches up to any international student housing facility, allows students to interact outside the classroom with their peers from across cultures.

With access to world-class education improving drastically over the years, the differentiator in the wake of globalization is created by how well future leaders understand and work with cultural contexts. And at NMS, students stand to gain exactly that by learning across contexts and cultures – diverse outlooks that make great leaders.

The NMS Advantage: A Truly Global Outlook

With an increasing influx of International Students in India for its cost-effective quality educational options, NMS is looking at supporting more and more International Students with their educational pursuits so they derive maximum value out of their experience. Over the next few days, let us look at the NMS advantage and the NMS edge for students entering the world of management education.

NMS offers American Education at Indian costs. What that translates to for our students is global exposure with faculty visiting from the US – almost all of them with a PhD from the US - at very reasonable costs. The program itself is designed after the MBA program in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University. It conforms to the standards of the AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) standards - the highest accrediting body for management education in the world, ensuring absolute credibility and quality in the fundamental structure and design of each course. And the degree awarded at the end of the program, equivalent to that awarded by any university in the US, is co-signed by Deans of The National Management School and Georgia State University.

In addition, NMS offers the advantage of practical implementation of this acquired world-class knowledge to the Indian Business Context. At NMS, students are given the opportunity to interact with business leaders and be mentored by them. The CXO Panel at NMS comprises of senior executives from the industry, the government and NGOs. These CXOs spend ONE full day with these students during these 2 years. This way, students get a chance to work with leaders from a diverse set of businesses at various stages of evolution. And this combination lets students take their management education experience to a new level of synthesis.

Offered in two modes - a two-year full-time MBA and a two-year Professional MBA (on weekends for working executives), the program lends students a truly global outlook in their education.

A Nobel Laureate's Vision Revisited At NMS

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--

Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.

- Rabindranath Tagore

Gitanjali

Almost a century ago, Gurudev dedicated this beautiful verse to this country, his dream and his hope for this nation encompassed into lyrical magic. His work placed the erstwhile colony of India at the top in the world of literature by winning the Nobel Prize. And just as he had wished, the country did awake into a heaven of freedom three decades after.

It is such vision of a few great men that has made India what it is and all that it represents to the world. In every age, India has been blessed with visionaries who have single-handedly changed the face of this nation. And the 63rd Indian Independence Day is an apt occasion to take a moment and revisit NMS’s vision for itself.

At its core, NMS’s vision can be likened to what Gurudev envisioned for India, in entirety.

Where the mind is without fear and the head held high…

By adopting an innovative model of education that gives both the classroom and the industry equal time and importance, NMS aims at becoming that place where the mind is without fear and the head held high. NMS wants to empower our students to become generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy. We want our students to become global leaders who can lead from the front.

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by domestic walls…

With its collaboration with the Georgia and Temple Universities and its global faculty, NMS believes in breaking all walls and making management education truly global. NMS offers American education in India at Indian education costs and in doing so it makes global education easily accessible for Indians. Knowledge and know-how from across the world is now available for the brightest Indian minds to lap up. NMS will continue its endeavour in the coming years with an increasing spread across the globe and bringing that knowledge back home.

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

The faculty at NMS comprises of experts from the top US Universities. This ensures that the students get to absorb only knowledge that comes from the depths of experience. NMS also has access to numerous CXOs from diverse business backgrounds who are at the helm of their organizations and have the best feel for the industry trends. This combination of faculty and industry mentors enables the students to get the true picture of the trends and issues in their fields, and NMS will continue to offer this differentiating factor to its students in the years to come.

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action…

NMS’s model of education ensures that enough rigour is built into the course and the students have to go that extra mile when it comes to any aspect of their education. A schedule that seamlessly integrates classroom hours and industry time leading to simultaneous learning and application of concepts brings in a need for the students to keep their axes sharpened at all points in time. And NMS will continue to inculcate this edge in its students in the coming years and develop them into sharp business leaders.

With all of the above, NMS’s students will undoubtedly awaken in that heaven of freedom and confidence that will allow them to take on the world of business with the backing of a global education in the years to come. Here’s wishing them the best and wishing fellow countrymen on the occasion of Independence Day.