An ace fund raiser
PASSING THROUGH: Martin Jischke
| On a whirlwind tour of India recently, Jischke, who stopped at three cities "" Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore "" had just one goal: meeting the India alumni and promoting the university. He is the first among the 10 presidents of Purdue to visit India so far. |
| Despite his maiden trip, the tall and well-built Jischke, 63, claims that he is here strictly on business. And why not? He is just one in a line of many US university heads who have been making frequent trips to India. |
| In the past two years, deans of American Ivy League colleges like Harvard, Wharton and Stanford have been winging their way to India to woo students, both for undergraduate courses and management degrees. |
| From alumni dinners to corporate talks, they have been talking to a cross-section of people to attract more people to their universities. |
| That's because, over the years, American universities have been losing most of their international student population to less expensive colleges and less stringent passages to countries like Australia and New Zealand. |
| The US has been attracting 600,000 international students every year, with the Indian contingent being the largest. But that number has been gradually dwindling as countries like Australia and even Canada have become aggressive. |
| A TopMBA applicant survey reveals that in 2004, the number of international students applying to US B-schools was down by 5-6 per cent, and that to Singapore and Australian universities increased by 3-4 per cent since last year. |
| So today, not only do they have on-campus interviews in India, they are going the whole hog to promote education in their country. |
| As a result, US universities, which until now were the epitome of learning, are fast coming to terms with the fact that they are not always the first choice of learning for Indians who want to study abroad. |
| So US universities are finally practicing what they are preaching "" marketing themselves to promote their brand. And Purdue, ranked 21 by US business magazine Business Week in 2004, is the latest to put India on its road show. |
| "The situation wasn't all that bad overall, though universities became more competitive," says Jischke. According to him, the tightened visa norms after 9/11 have had an adverse effect, particularly on educational institutes. No wonder, then, that this has launched Jischke into action. |
| Two months ago, he testified before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the difficulties faced by international students entering the country to pursue higher education. "We are serious about making our international students comfortable," he says. |
| Purdue, for instance, has been losing about 15-20 students per semester. Of its total 40,000 student population, international students account for almost 20 per cent. |
| And competing countries like Australia, Great Britain and Canada are more than accepting students rejected by the US with open arms. "We don't just compete with other developed countries. Many home countries of international students are now providing better opportunities for students now," adds Jischke. |
| Moreover, since 2003, at least 60-70 universities have either advertised or participated in US education seminars in India. What's more, this year Pennsylvania's Wharton University advertised in a national daily. Now it is Purdue's turn to woo. |
| Does this indicate Purdue's growing interest in India? "Yes, most definitely," affirms Jischke. And why not? This academic year has seen the highest number of Indian students in Purdue "" 995 out of 4,921 international students this fall. |
| And when the university, like other American universities, is experiencing a drop in the total number of international student applications (there were 5,094 international students in 2003), this trend cannot be ignored. So after visits to South Asian markets like China and Korea, Purdue has turned its attention to its biggest market. |
| Jischke is a man of few words but many laurels. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, he was awarded the Centennial Medallion of the American Society for Engineering Education. |
| He has honourary doctoral degrees from the Illinois Institute of Technology and the National Agricultural University of Ukraine. |
| Jischke's stint as president at Iowa State University in Ames, since 1991, must have served him well. After an almost 8-month search, he was chosen as president of Purdue in 2000. |
| Not only was Iowa a land-grant university, but Jischke had a track record of being a successful fund-raiser. Under him, Iowa's private fund-raising topped $100 million annually. |
| Looks like he is the man with the Midas touch. This year, Purdue has raised a record $1.5 billion through private funds. And from its late 20s ranking in 1998, Purdue's full-time MBA ranking has inched up. Also, there have been new additions like the state-of-the-art engineering and management school buildings on the campus. |
| Purdue's Indian interest shows off-campus too. This year, it tied up with the TA Manipal Institute for a research programme in pharmacy. "We would be interested in more alliances like these in the future," says Jischke. |
| And next time he comes down, he wants to make sure that his itinerary involves loads of sight seeing and exploration. |