IIM Ahmedabad plans first global campus offshore

Indian Institute of Management ((IIM), Ahmedabad, is considering launching its first off-shore campus. “We want to be a leader in the southern hemisphere, but our future direction is still being evaluated, deliberated, debated and discussed,” says Bharat Bhasker, Director, IIM-A in an interview with Fortune India. He indicated that the country’s premier business school is evaluating a presence in geographies such as Africa, the MENA region, south-east Asia and Australia. “We would like to open a new campus where it is impactful.” 

The intent is to build a global brand. Bhasker feels it is high time Indian business schools make their presence felt in the global markets. He plans to approach this by ‘internationalising’ his curriculum. “We have to start programmes which are geared for the global markets. Our alumni are our ambassadors and when our students outperform Harvard or INSEAD graduates, global companies will automatically want to  hire more from IIM-A.” IIM-A as per the QS Global MBA ranking is 53^rd, while IIM Calcutta is 59^th in the ranking list.

The IIM director sees the need for a ranking list emerging out of India. “I urge all the ranking organisations to form a consortium and become global like QS or FT. The reason for this is the parameters set by the global ranking agencies, they don’t fit into the Indian circumstances. We need to look at ranking through a new lens,” says Bhasker.

A key parameter for an MBA school to be part of a global ranking is the number of international students it has in its classes. Factors such as the number of global board members and faculty from across the world also play an important role. “I am a country of 1.4 billion, why should I be bothered about how many students I have with foreign passports? I have so many talented students, you can look at my state diversity. Even in my faculty every State of India is represented,” argues Bhasker. “When it comes to international board members we are bound by rules and regulations as we are governed by the Government,” he adds.

The need for global ranking/accreditation becomes all the more important at a time when a lot of the global business schools are setting their campuses in India.