Global stamp of recognition

In my recent post about Indian business schools: Best practices, I had written about top business schools identifying best practices to help benchmark with foreign schools and attract the best students and faculty. International accreditation helps business schools get a global stamp of recognition for their MBA programmes. Students get their degrees recognised globally, while the business school is successful in securing more foreign partnerships and linkages.

Four business schools in India have received the Association of MBAs (AMBA) accreditation. The UK-based AMBA is an international impartial authority on postgraduate business education. The AMBA accredits MBA provision at 187 schools in over 70 countries. IIM Lucknow’s MBA programme is the most recent to receive the Association of MBAs accreditation in November 2011.

The first to receive global accreditation from the Association was MDI Gurgaon in 2005 followed by SP Jain and IIM Kozhikode. More business school accreditations are also in the pipeline. “Granting Association of MBAs accreditation is a mark of the quality of a business school’s programmes and ultimately is a great profile-raising tool for schools, as our programmes are recognised internationally, thereby giving the business school a global status and network,” said Sharon Bamford, Chief Executive of the Association of MBAs. “The Association of MBAs accreditation is unique as it focuses on individual programmes, rather than the whole institution. This in-depth and detailed approach means that the highest standards of teaching, faculty and student interaction are guaranteed by our accreditation. We also believe that programmes should be of the highest standard and reflect changing trends and innovation in postgraduate management education,” she added.

As well as accreditation of top business schools, the Association of MBAs is committed to the growth and high standards of post-graduate management education by creating enhanced membership opportunities for Indian MBA students and alumni. The first of the Association’s membership initiatives launched in November 2011 with a networking and learning event called Global Connections. “India is the cornerstone of the Association of MBAs innovation strategy. Our focus is to work with Indian business schools to build and improve on their management education giving them international recognition, and to support MBA students and alumni with membership opportunities that assist in their professional development,” said Sharon Bamford.

Future initiatives include empowering local MBA students and graduates to build a global network representing accredited MBA programmes. This will provide professional development through learning and networking events and through the opportunity to build an international profile for those who have studied at an accredited programme. This global network would unite MBA students, business schools and employers of MBAs under the prestigious umbrella of the Association of MBAs.

Top varsities or bottom feeders?

In an article published in an US-based education website recently, Philip Altbach wrote “India is still debating legislation to open the door to foreign higher education institutions. It is unlikely, despite smiling university presidents and copious amounts of goodwill, that America’s top universities are going to invest heavily in India, even if the doors are open. More likely, bottom feeders will slither into the country.” Altbach is Monan Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College in the United States.

Nothing short of a sad indictment given the earlier anticipation surrounding the Foreign Education Providers Bill in India and the entry of “world class” varsities to the country. A year ago, I had written an article for QS TopMBA on foreign b-schools that were keen on setting up offshore campuses in India once the proposed bill became a regulation. University representatives of b-schools in North America and Europe were very excited about the new regulation that was being planned. There was a flurry of activity. Land was being acquired, campuses planned.

Canada’s Schulich School of Business was one such institute. Schulich is setting up a campus at Hyderabad in partnership with the city’s GMR group. “The GMR Campus of the Schulich School of Business will be a mirror image of Schulich’s Toronto campus, with first-rate facilities, international faculty and an internationally-focused curriculum,” said Schulich Dean Dezsö J Horváth. “We will attract the best and the brightest students from India and abroad and prepare them for global careers in India and elsewhere in the world.” US-based Georgia Tech was also scouting around for locations in Hyderabad for a b-school in collaboration with Infosys.

Faculty of top Indian b-schools such as the Indian Institutes of Management were upbeat about the competition. Professor Sougata Ray, Dean, Programme Initiatives, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC), noted, “The bill is certainly a welcome move as there is a great demand for quality management education in India. Large numbers of students do not get admitted to the IIMs and end up spending huge sums of money going abroad. By allowing foreign varsities into India, these students will now get a chance to study at a good institute.”

Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, was also optimistic. “We have always believed that the best public policy for improving educational institutions is to enable and encourage competition. The introduction of this bill allowing foreign institutions into India seems to be a step in the right direction. There is a large pool of bright young students whose aspirations have been limited by the lack of right opportunities. We need several high quality educational institutions to meet this demand.”

So what changed over the course of the year? Could it be the delay in getting the bill cleared? Or the mixed signals from the government? Or protests from private education providers in various parts of the country.

In a report released recently by the US-based Institute of International Education (IIE), US institutions are being advised that bureaucracy may present a significant challenge to setting up study abroad programs in India and building partnerships with Indian institutions. The report says that “legislation to alleviate this has been introduced but has an uncertain future.”

“Given the delay of the much anticipated Foreign Providers’ Bill in India, US institutions interested in initiating large-scale operations in India may want to focus on joint and dual degree programs in partnership with Indian institutions, rather than wait for future opportunities to establish brick-and-mortar branch campuses in India, which may also be prohibitively expensive to launch.”

One wonders whether it is just a case of US universities getting cold feet about setting up offshore campuses in India and therefore, diluting their brand? One will just have to wait (for the Bill to get cleared) and watch ….