Indian students dominate Harvard Business School

Indian students dominate Harvard Business School

 

16 Nov, 2007, 0032 hrs IST,Ambika Naithani, TNN

 

For the first time, Indian students will have a majority representation among the foreign students at the Harvard Business School (HBS). Out of the 900 students who joined this year and will graduate in 2009, 38 students are from India or of Indian origin.

 

The Indian contingent has pipped the one from Canada, which usually has the maximum representation. The number of students from Canada has remained constant at 35 for the graduating batches of 2008 and 2009. According to, HBS assistant director in MBA career services, Kurt Piemonte, "Increasingly, we find Indian students want to head back to the country to pursue their careers. There is a real interest in India and the trend of returning to India to work is catching up. The number of students who have not been in the US before and want to return to India to work is rising."

 

Apparently, this also holds true for second generation Indian students, for whom the only link to India is their parents are also opting to work from the country. HBS alumni in the country have taken keen interest in familiarising HBS students with India during field visits, he added.

 

As is well known, about 15% of HBS's faculty are either from India or of Indian origin, making them the highest international representation after the US. Today, many of these professors teach cases based on frontline Indian companies like TCS, ITC e-choupal and ICICI Bank. In addition, HBS also holds an India conference annually and invites business leaders from India to share their perspective.

 

Also, as part of its plan to globalise its curriculum, in 2005, HBS opened the India Research Center (IRC) in Mumbai, one of the six research units across the world. The research centre will help build HBS's knowledge about the Indian economy and the corporate sector through case studies and original research work. HBS plans of offer its first executive education programme in India in February 2008.