SMS
RSS feeds
Reddit
NewsvineIn 2007, the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) will become the first Indian business school to offer an exchange program with Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
Enlarge
The Stanford-IIM-B Exchange Program will allow 16 students from each school to participate in a collaborative cross-cultural learning experience regarding business and management in the U.S. and India. According to Management Prof. V. “Seenu” Srinivasan, coordinator of the Stanford-IIM-B Exchange Program at the GSB, teams of four students — two from the IIM-B and two second-year Stanford GSB MBAs will collaborate on academic group projects fall quarter. Students will supplement their understanding with readings and lectures. From Sept. 16 through Sept. 22, the GSB students will meet with their fellow group members in Bangalore, and then the IIM-B students will visit Stanford for the week of Dec. 2 through Dec. 8. The focus of the visits will be on academics, business and social activities.
“The hope is that this program will foster strong, lifelong relationships between Indian and American business students,” Srinivasan said.
Last May, GSB faculty approved a new MBA curriculum to be implemented starting autumn quarter 2007. It expands the GSB’s current global management curriculum in part by requiring students to complete a global experience. This requirement can be met via a study trip, an approved international internship, an overseas service-learning trip or a student exchange.
“Requiring all students to visit and learn about a country where they have not spent time before signals to our students that international aspects of business are becoming more important and helps them prepare for careers that will inevitably involve them in the international economy,” said Prof. John Roberts, who teaches economics, strategic management and international business.
The GSB currently runs a similar exchange program with the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in China. According to Roberts, the GSB does not plan to offer other exchange programs, but is open to student suggestions to do so. The student exchanges with Tsinghua and IIM-B currently do not meet the requirement for an international experience because the programs cannot be completed early enough in the student’s studies.
“For now, we are focused on being able to allow every student to go on a study trip or a service-learning trip,” Roberts said.