International Academic Collaborations In B-Schools

Business Schools are always keen to establish international collaborations worldwide. Cross cultural understanding, academic mobility programs, and exchange programs, joint/dual degrees, short term immersion programs, and joint research activities, joint conferences are the basic ingredients of such collaborations. The purpose and objective of international linkages are different from schools to school and country to country. Many schools place great emphasis in collaborations, faculty and student exchange programs thanks to globalization, internationalization of programs the need to initiate an academic partnerships have increased for the past decade. Academic partnerships are built over a period of years based on understanding the nature, type, vision and mission of the school. Usually the exchange programs between schools are non-fee sharing programs. But, there are schools that charge the tuition fees from the exchange students during the student exchange programs. Also, there are some schools which do not believe in signed academic alliances and partnerships but believe in faculty driven research projects.

In the simplest of phrases, the academic partnerships are like the creation of a bond of matrimony between schools. Each school has to understand other school's academic policies and should work towards mutually rewarding experience. Each school need to study the partners' programs, ranks, student mobility, academic calendars, medium of instruction, courses, credits, organizational structure and whole other array of parameters before inking the pages. Both need to agree upon the terms and conditions with respect to mobility. Some school may even penalize the partner for not meeting the required students' numbers. Most of the schools do not keep the financial clause in their agreements related to student numbers. Both schools always keep an option to terminate the memorandum of understanding mutually.

The student exchange programs in Indian business schools act as a catalyst to their career building. The expenses are usually taken care by the student while on exchange program including medical insurance and visa. Whereas, in institutions signed partnerships, the expenses are either paid by the sending institution or host institution. The buddy and orientation programs during exchange programs would be a lifelong learning experience from cultural perspective. Knowledge of foreign language would acts as an added advantage to interact with their friends and peers. The home schools recognize the credits earned in the transcripts and award grades as per academic policies. Apart from regular exchange programs, there are few scholarships available to students and faculty through programs like Erasmus Mundus, DAAD , the German Academic Exchange Service, UK India Education and Research Initiatives, Indo-Shastri Scholarships.

Signed academic collaborations should always be active. After all the relationships of built over a period of years with huge efforts in agreeing to terms and conditions. One of the partner has to be active to 'wake up' the passive partner. Otherwise, many inked pages would prettily lie in college cup boards without any active mobility. Also both school need to create a room for flexibility in understanding student requirements, courses, without compromising their academic principles of conduct and rules. Both school need to retrospect the results year on year about the outcome. If for a school, courses are taught only in English, signs an agreement with French or Spanish speaking school then the academic mobility would be difficult unless the visiting students or faculty are well versed in Spanish or French. The spirit of true learning through exchange programs would be difficult for both faculty and students in such cases. However, most of the schools run foreign language courses to nurture and develop international cross cultural mechanism and teach cultural and business etiquettes. Knowledge of a foreign language would always be an added advantage to a business school student.

There has been a general apprehension among many schools that faculty mobility programs exist only at individual faculty level. It is a usual practice that faculty mobility are active and successful at discrete faculty level. In such individual driven scenario, the faculty either contacts the professors or develops interactions with other school's faculty in academic forums. They either develop or co-create a course, write joint research paper or publish a joint case. This would further result in either of the faculty visiting their schools for offering lectures or teaching partial or full courses. The full bright, funded or sponsored faculty exchange programs may come in this category.

There are several schools that believe in faculty exchange programs since it enhances the perspective of cross cultural teaching. The dearth of cross cultural teaching in schools is increasingly becoming a challenge. Active academic linkages would address this challenge. The schools agree upon faculty exchange policies like period of teaching, courses to be taught (full course, partial course in collaboration), details related to travel (who will pay what) and remuneration (per hour, total number of hours), official duty (on duty) or during leave period etc. Also coupling the faculty exchange package with some cultural tours would always be an added attraction. Some schools agree on faculty to stay for shorter period and some school may choose to invite faculty for longer periods. Attracting and retaining quality faculty and deliver contemporary and contextual curriculum is huge challenge for any school. Attractive Faculty exchange programs institutionalized by schools inform of various types of collaborations would address this issue. To provide global exposure to the faculty, institutions should be encouraged to tie-up with international schools. Corporates, need to interact visiting exchange faculties in comprehending cross cultural industrial issues.

It is very pity to see that many top schools proudly display names of many ranked partner institutions (year on year the numbers goes up). It is a lingering question that, out of those huge numbers how many are actually active?. By inviting a celebrity faculty for any conclave or seminar does not concretize the relation unless the collaborations and mobility programs are sustained. Many MoUs expire without any having a single mobility. The schools have to ensure and kindle the partnership if one of them becomes passive. There can be many issues related to inactive partnerships. This may be due to inadequate or lack of funds, ongoing accreditation process at the school, mis-match of academic calendars, sudden fee hikes, leadership change, gradual change of academic culture, government policies, visa related hassles etc. Several ranking forums and agencies in India argue on the number, type of mobility and actual value additions on collaborations.

Over period of years the collaborations have taken many twists in India. The west is looking at emerging markets as potential market to run their high ranked blockbuster programs. There are concepts such as 'flying in faculty', where in faculty visits for a short period of time in such joint degree programs and delivers the contents. There are policies to offer a joint or dual degrees subject to National body's approval. No school would like to dilute its brand unless it is very sure of its partner's capability.

Many schools have introduced short immersion programs for their international business programs. They expect their academic partner to facilitate cross industry exposure, understanding the business environment coupled with cultural tours. Usually a cohort of students accompanied by a faculty visit partner institutions for industrial practicums. Asia in general, China and India in particular are the favorite destinations for such programs. The local students play as cultural buddies in acclimatizing the industries and lectures. These short term exchange programs promote huge value addition in short time. The visiting delegates listen to lectures related to the business models, doing business in particular country, economics and financial markets, business strategies and challenges faced etc.

With the Make in India initiative gaining widespread popularity on a global level, international educational collaborations has been an integral topic of action on the Indian government's agenda. India is one of the world's third largest economies and it has one of the world's most expansive education systems. Leveraging this, the government is launching programmes that allow Indian schools to tie up with international B-Schools where the government at its cost sponsors faculty and students from top schools around the world to come and experience the Indian education system to make them aware of its top notch quality. This mutual exchange has created a stimulus and as worked as the perfect catalyst to allow students and faculty from India to get exposed to international pedagogies of learning and vice versa too. This impetus has led to an increased the number of symbiotic global collaborations between Indian schools and other schools around the world. Regular partners meet, attending international education conclaves jointly would help to promote and retrospect on the value of partnerships. The international relations department need to work hand in hand with academic deans and faculty regularly to identify the challenges related to student and faculty mobility programs. The undisputed success of international collaborations lie in the perfect balance of these crucial balance.