It's indeed a profitable exchange
“II would say it was a life-changing experience for me. It was the first time away from home, all alone. It was truly an amazing experience which has had an immense impact on my life,” gushes Meenakshi Mutthiah, VP Finance, ASIEC. Wondering what she is describing? Well, it's her 6-month internship to Turkey and working on a social project called ‘break up the barriers’. “I was working with disabled children, teaching them, playing with them and learning from them. Along with me were four other people from different countries. We travelled in the weekends and went around Turkey. It was a fun-filled learning experience.”
Says Punam Kashyap, director - education, GEMS India, “Student exchange programmes are primarily designed to enable students to learn beyond the classroom and offer an opportunity to explore and understand different education systems, cultures and communities. This activity forms an indispensable part of any multi-faceted curriculum in a school and sensitises students towards global issues by broadening their general knowledge.”
An international internship programme not just gives a student a global learning platform but exposure to various cultures, traditions and values. Says Kilton Munyaradzi, currently pursuing his BSc in Animation Film Design from Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad, “With the opportunity given to us to continue our studies abroad, I feel it gives me plenty of hope for the future and a lot of exposure in my field which I can carry on into my professional career. This program has not only provided me the chance of fitting into a new culture but also the advantage of learning through new teaching strategies which may be different from the ones in our own countries. This programme also helps build confidence, independence and acquire better decision making skills.”
Several business schools now offer exchange programmes in partnership with business schools in other countries. Students look at these exchange programmes as a means of understanding global business issues by immersing themselves in international academic environments. The key learnings and takeaways from MBA exchange programmes include understanding educational and business environments of different cultures and applying the knowledge gained in their parent MBA programme in a different cultural context. Also, it helps understand and research overseas work environments and build a global network of friends and contacts. It also results in increased learning opportunities in specific elective areas.
“The primary advantage of participating in MBA exchange programmes is gaining multicultural perspectives on business issues. This experience increases a student’s marketability upon graduation. Another advantage is using the exchange programme to connect and network with firms at the partner school location with the aim of securing employment there,” says Vinayak Kudva - product head, IMS Learning Resources.
Piyush Jain, a student of MDI, Gurgaon Batch of 2011, who went to ESCP Paris for his exchange programme opines, “As the world gets flatter, we as managers need to develop a broader and global outlook. MBA has always been more about learning practically from peers through group work and discussions inside and outside class and seeing all that we study in action. Since my first day in the MBA programme, I had studied cases about Starbucks experience, retail format of IKEA, or the operational efficiencies of Dunkin Donuts, but the exchange programme gave me the opportunity to witness all this firsthand in action.”
Ravi Rambhatla, PGP 2009-11, IIM Kozhikode, recollects an interesting experience. “As a part of the exchange semester, I was sent to the Norwegian School of Business and Economics (NHH), Bergen. As a student in first year, it was a dream to go to a European college and find out what exactly an exchange semester culminates into. There were a million questions which were there and after interacting with some seniors who had gone over for the programme, it was clear that this was definitely an experience which cannot be missed. The experience was simply out of the world as we arrived in a completely different culture and a whole lot of new people. And the first thing you notice when you enter a class in a top-notch European MBA school is that everybody turns up for all the classes even when there is no attendance criteria. And a very good thing is that half the students at NHH are on exchange, so you get to meet students from all parts of the world. Since NHH is a college which specialises in economics, among other things, some of us had the opportunity to study advanced economics courses, something which is very difficult because not many colleges have economics as a specialisation.”
Today, we live in a ‘global village’ of networked economy, where customers are digitally addressable. Apeejay Svran International College offers University of Greenwich, United Kingdom's Programmes in International Business with support of the Government of UK through UK-India Education and Research Initiatives (UKIERI). As part of its annual cultural exchange programme with Sweden, Smt Parvatibai Chowgule College of Arts & Science in Goa hosted a group of 12 students and three faculty members from Tullinge Gymnasium, a high school in Sweden. During their two-week stay in Goa, the group of students aged between 17 and 21 years of age were introduced to various aspects of Goan and Indian culture and have been able to get a peek into the local lifestyles of the Goan people.
Says 19-year-old Martin Sanell from Tullinge Gymnasium, Sweden, “An exchange programme is an opportunity for students to learn about the cultures of different nations and get an insight into the lifestyle of people.
We never stepped outside our country but when we got the opportunity to spend two weeks in Goa, we stepped up on our grades to make sure we were selected to be a part of the exchange programme with Chowgule College.
Tony Carrick, assistant principal, Tullinge Gymnasium, Sweden, adds, “It’s very important for students to be able to broaden their thinking and experience different cultures.
Sweden is a small country. Spending two weeks in Goa, living and studying amongst the students of Chowgule College has been an enriching experience for the students of our institute.”
Kshitija Kulkarni, Welingkar Institute, counts his trip as the “best experiences in my student life that broadened my horizon on the personal front by making me sensitive towards a new culture and reinforcing in me the values and norms of our country. I also got an opportunity to interact and share experiences and stories with people of other nationalities.”
If you have an opportunity to go for an exchange programme, make sure you don't miss it.