IIMs sharpen focus on foreign partnerships

IIM-Ahmedabad has around 75 tie-ups while IIM-Calcutta has around 50 partnerships with B-schools abroad.

Encouraged by the positive response they received from the Ministry of Human Resources Development on opening up campuses on foreign shores, some of the Indian Institutes of Management have also started scouting for foreign collaborations.

The IIMs reason that foreign tie-ups are important given the increasing demand for student and faculty exchange programmes and joint programmes in research and training.

The IIMs are also exploring increased international accreditation to help them gain better global access and aid them in forming alliances with international institutes. Global accreditation assists in attracting more foreign students and opening up opportunites for tie-ups with foreign universities.

IIM-A, for instance, is evaluating collaborations with three top international schools - the University of Virginia, Ohio State University and Duke University. The faculty from each of the three business schools are expected to visit IIM-A for discussions during the next several weeks. This is in addition to nearly 75 tie-ups that the IIM-A already has with different renowned business schools. Sources at IIM-A say more foreign collaborations is expected to help the institute become a globally acknowledged management school.

Likewise, IIM-C is exploring more partnerships with foreign universities. Shekhar Choudhuri, director, IIM-C, says: "We are looking at increasing our international collaborations. Currently, we have 50 collaborations with foreign universities. More foreign collaboration is important for student exchange programmes because at IIM Calcutta, student intake is increasing and each foreign partner institute takes only two-three students. So, this year, we have 408 students, next year we would have 460 students. We need more foreign partnerships with educational institutes so that we can send all our students overseas on various programmes."

IIM-C is also exploring partnerships in countries where it does not have any collaboration yet. For instance, IIM-C is looking at universities in China and Australia. The institute already has collaborations with institutes in Germany, UK, France and Belgium. "We are looking at a few joint research papers in order to boost collaboration as well as improve
overall quality of research. So, currently we are carrying out joint faculty research with MIT, US. Some of our faculty is also into joint research with Harvard Business School," adds Choudhuri.

Both IIM-C and IIM-A are also concentrating on global accreditations in order to help them gain better global access and aid them in forming alliances with international institutes.

IIM-A took the first step towards global recognition by becoming the first management school in the country to have been accorded EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) accreditation. EQUIS is a leading international system of quality assessment, improvement and accreditation of higher education institutions of management and business administration.

IIM-C has sought certificates from the Association of Advanced Collegiate School of Business (AASCB). The institute is also seeking the European Quality Improvement System label from the European Foundation of Management Development (EFDM).

Till April 2008, nearly 550 institutions had been accredited by the AASCB, of which 96 are outside the US. Over 110 institutes had been accredited by EFMD in 33 countries till June 2008.

Simultaneously, the MHRD has expressed interest to tie up with the world's leading universities to ensure that its "innovation universities" are a class apart from the pack. Among the American universities that are being approached are Yale, Standford and MIT. The government plans to set up 14 innovation universities over the next few years.

The government proposes to set up these universities as "global centres of innovation" and would like to draw on the talent and expertise of leading universities. Among other things, MHRD is reportedly keen on chartered schools, vocational education options and twinning programmes at the higher education level.