Foreign alliances cross the 100 mark

GLOBAL TIE-UPS: Aiming at better foreign placements and international rankings, Indian B-schools are racing for international partnerships.

Over 100 international academic tie-ups have taken place in a span of just one year. For instance, the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) has had three international academic tie-ups; Institute for Management and Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad, too has had six collaborations and Xavier's Institute of Management (XIM), Bhubaneshwar, has had 10 academic associations. IIM Ahmedabad so far has had 45 tie-ups with international academic institutions.

Last year too, there were a number of tie-ups. A report released by National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) India, notes that in 2005 alone, 31 UK universities, 18 institutions from the US, two from Australia, six from France and four Canadian universities joined hands with Indian universities and colleges across the country.

Though the figures of such tie-ups have gone up considerably, there is no official body in India which keeps an account of such collaborations.

According to an August 2004 report by NIEPA on foreign education providers, there are 131 colleges across India which have had foreign institutional collaborations.

Maharashtra has had more international institutes approaching it for hotel management courses while Delhi ranks highest in academic collaborations for business management courses.

These associations happen either through franchise programmes, joint collaboration or twinning arrangements where institutes get into joint research or student and faculty exchange programmes. None of the foreign institutes, however, have set-up branches in India.

That these arrangements help in academic development of the institute is a well-known fact. But it also helps the institutes attract a good global placement opportunity from the corporates.

Says Munish Bhargava, chairman placement, IIFT, "These tie-ups increase our global visibility. MNCs are looking at India as a foothold for international talent and thus they look at the Indian education system, in particular the B-school. Such tie-ups refurbish their belief in the b-schools and help them offer better jobs."

B S Sahay, Director, IMT Ghaziabad, concurs: "Such collaborations are able to provide a cross-cultural environment of learning to students. There are group dynamics that one learns well through these collaborations."

These academic collaborations have also been beneficial for the universities to recover their cost of education. Public universities in India, have traditionally recovered around 25 per cent of the cost of education but tuition costs have also been on the rise.

On an average, students who pursue foreign degrees in India pay around $4,505 per annum. The tie-up story is, however, not limited only to B-schools in India.

There are a host of local colleges in the country which have joined hands with foreign institutions and have several such opportunities in the pipeline.

With 17,973 institutions (348 universities and 17625 colleges), India is the largest higher education system in the world. There are 10 million students and 0.5 million teachers in India.

However, in terms of enrolment, India is the third largest after China and the US. Given these numbers, it little wonder that the tie-ups are coming thick and fast.

There are failed Tie-ups too

Not every time a tie-up story is successful. There are well-known Indian institutes which have not met the infrastructure norms for international institutes and have failed to collaborate.

For example, a delegation from an institute in Canada which approached a college in Mumbai for an academic collaboration, declined the tie-up as the college did not have computerised data of its books in the library.

Experts say that many tie-ups also fail because of the lackadaisical attitude of the institutes. A Canadian institute was on the verge of snapping its ties with a well-know university in Mumbai since the approach of the officials was very lethargic.

Caveat emptor

There are many fly-by-night operators in the education field. Many private institutes which are not accredited by AICTE get into such tie-ups and award degrees to students.

Here, a student should look for the certificate offered by the institute. Also, for a joint programme, the students should see if the degree is valid in both the countries.

Says Sudhanshu Bhushan, senior fellow and head, NIEPA, "These tie-ups are happening in an unorganised sector and there is no authority to keep a track of the same. Therefore, implementation of FDI becomes more important in India so that stringent norms and regulations can be framed for these institutes."