Professor Abhay Abhyankar a specialist in Finance Economics and Helen Freeman Head of Marketing and Recruitment engaged with applicants from India on a recent trip to Mumbai, Bangalore and Cochin in India in November 2013 which included myriad activities to promote our MBA and strengthen research partnership links.
Exeter’s Business School partners with the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore on mutual areas of research, and given Abhay’s expertise in Finance, we were able to generate a great deal of interest in our on-going research projects and Abhay’s own project related to empirical asset pricing.
In India, the MBA is a way of life, an essential qualification after graduation. Often students will look to take an MBA, work on their professional Accounting qualifications and look at other Masters qualifications too. It’s a way of keeping all options open for as long as possible. The ideal MBA is one that is combined with a specialism, in Bangalore for example Digital Management and IT are sought after, in Mumbai it’s more about entrepreneurialism. There is real anxiety over the visa regulations though current UK regulations mean students can apply for a work visa once they procure a job that pays over £20,000 or the Graduate Entrepreneur visa is an alternative route. This can be facilitated through the Business Schools specialist MBA careers support. Our Exeter MBA partners with the University’s Innovation Centre, home to promising start ups. This partnership is to be strengthened further in 2014 when our more entrepreneurial MBA students will be able to develop business ideas, transform them into business proposals, pitch them to entrepreneurs. By the end of their MBA they could already be running their own company.
At the QS MBA Fair in Bangalore last month we met Dilip Bokasia who has already applied to us and who will be joining us in 2014. He was impressed by the awards our MBA programme has attracted, its position in rankings and he congratulated us on our admissions processes which he said were very good.
Our alumni are doing very well back home in India. The 2013 graduate cohort have all taken up jobs in India they are passionate about, including UFO Moviez Pvt Ltd, True School of Music, Procam International, Deloitte to name a few. The Business School is also proud to have two graduates who have committed to two years of full time work under the Teach for India programme where they teach children from under-privileged backgrounds who attend government run schools with little amenities.
So overall a very productive visit. It was great engaging with our prospective students from India and catching up with our MBA alumni.
Helen Freeman, Head of Marketing and Recruitment