What’s In A Foreign Degree?

Did you happen to read the report cards of international B-schools boasting of excellent placement records for the year? Well, never mind those.

Placement statistics from top international business schools show that only 30 per cent students managed a total career change, that is, a new role, a new industry and a new country. The remaining 70 per cent were left to fend for themselves.

Despite this, offshore B-schools are aggressively recruiting students from India and other countries, to improve their enrolment rates. And students who do not know better, are happily going for it, in hopes of finding a well-paying job abroad at the end of their education.

“If a student goes to the US thinking he will definitely get a H-1B visa, he is fooling himself. You can get unlucky, and you have to be prepared for it,” says Kamya Gupta, a graduate from a B-school in the US, who fell victim to a controversial, lottery-based work-visa programme that puts international MBAs in the same category as foreign mid-level IT workers accused of taking away jobs from Americans.

According to last year’s GMCA survey, 47 per cent of the companies hiring MBAs in the US flatly refused to employ international graduates. The companies told GMCA that international hirees cost too much, require time-consuming paperwork and documentation, face a limited supply of visas, and often pose language barriers. Security clearances and cultural differences were also cited as reasons for refusing to hire international MBA graduates.

Foreign degrees are increasingly turning out to be a risky proposition considering how difficult it is to land international jobs. Plus, it makes no sense to pay more towards an education loan for studying abroad from just any university. A job in India will pay you as much as your India counterparts, who would have lower EMIs to pay towards their education loan.

A degree from the US or the UK is good, only if the plan is to pursue a global MBA from a top B-school. If you are going abroad only because others are, ask yourself whether the return will justify the investment. Even by the most conservative estimates, pursuing an MBA degree abroad could set you back by at least Rs 10 lakh. This, could go up to as much as
Rs 30 lakh for top US B-schools.

Indians are, however, ready to spend a large sum of money for a foreign degree as they consider it a form of investment. A foreign degree is perceived to be a medium for securing better-paying jobs. For some, it is not even about quality education; it’s just an access gate to the employment market or a quick fix to immigration. But not any foreign degree is good. Sameer Kamat, founder of admission consultancy firm MBA Crystal Ball, says, “When the value of degrees from certain schools is low in their own country, you can’t expect employers back in India to get too impressed with your new qualification”.

A foreign MBA degree can be a differentiator, only if it is from a renowned university that has a good reputation in the industry the degree holder wants to work with.

However, sometimes even those factors don’t help as majority recruitment at top companies happen at the campus of Indian B-schools. According to some surveys, most Indian recruiters do not actively seek foreign degree holders. The Indian universities are a good hunting ground for recruiters. More than 50 per cent of the leading Indian companies hire from the top 20 Indian institutions.

Recruiters never pay more for an overseas degree. They pay more for the additional skillset that management graduates from foreign universities possess or their international exposure which might make an impact.

“The Indian coporate ecosystem has changed the career landscape of the Indian youth. Most resident Indians today travel abroad for work. So, the point of international exposure also becomes null and void for Indian MBAs”, says Surabhi Sood, who completed her MBA from Symboisis Business School and is currently working with Fidelity Investments.

This year, corporates across verticals have shown keen interest in campus placement from B-schools in India, reflecting an optimistic business sentiment. Starting from e-commerce companies to consulting firms and private equity and venture capital firms, together they have extended an unprecedented number of offers.

Educationists say that Indian MBA institutes are catching up with international B-schools in terms of their teaching style. Here, case study methods have been introduced, and students are encouraged to inculcate a collective learning and development through team-based assignments and business simulations. Some schools in India have great faculty. However, the situation is not very good overall. Indian B-schools still don’t put as much emphasis on learning the practical aspects of a subject as the universities abroad.

In STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Management), international universities have much more to offer than their Indian counterparts. Most of our universities are behind in terms of research work, especially in STEM, hence there are limited opportunities in India after graduation. “Although the scenario is changing, it will be some time before students with degrees from India have similar prospects as their counterparts from foreign universities,” says Lohith Nagaraj, placement coordinator, IIM Indore.

Management education has come a long way since the days when it was predominantly focused on operations, finance, marketing and HR. Today, B-schools offer a wide array of specialisations to prepare students for growing business complexities. Most established B-schools offer more than a hundred domain-specific subjects as part of their MBA and PGDM programmemes. They also offer a number of sharply-focused courses under their executive education programmemes.

To say ‘Indian business schools can compete with American B-schools’ will be too ambitious. But India, with a little improvement to its B-schools, can certainly emerge as a hub for global management education.

naina@businessworld.in; @nainasood