The Indian school wanted a Canadian partner because of interest shown by its students. It picked the University of Toronto's Rotman facility based on its international reputation, says ISB dean M. Rammohan Rao, a former professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. ISB students are keen to spend part of their year studying in Canada, says Joseph Hopper, who manages the Indian institution's international programs.
Students who want to settle abroad are also interested in Canada because its immigration policies are relatively open compared with those of the United States and Europe, adds Hopper, a former Tennessee resident who was in ISB's first graduating class. Hopper's wife, who is Indian, also works at the school.
Set on 105 hectares on the outskirts of Hyderabad, ISB was founded in 2001 by a group of Indian industrialists, including Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, and Rajat Gupta, former worldwide managing director of McKinsey & Company. They wanted to establish a world-class school to groom future business leaders for India. Built of marble and red sandstone, with open, airy courtyards, state-of-the-art classrooms and a student residence run by a four-star hotel chain, ISB provides a coddled lifestyle along with a first-class education. The school recently got a grant worth $1.16 million (Canadian) from Goldman Sachs. Though students pay a hefty $36,000 for the one-year post-graduate business program, which includes tuition, room and board, they don't actually get an MBA, or any other degree for that matter. The lack of a degree hasn't hampered graduates. They have landed jobs with an average starting salary of $25,500, considered high by Indian standards. Thirty-four grads got jobs overseas earning an average $116,000, and some as much as $209,000.
The ISB student body has almost quadrupled in four years, to 420 from 120. Most are from India (though one-fifth are non-resident Indians from the U.S. and Europe), with an average of five years' work experience and an average GMAT score of 690 out of 800 — comparable to the grades required by top U.S. business schools. The average age of students is 27, with women making up 19 per cent of the classes. The school has 12 full-time faculty, with plans to hire three more, and a half-dozen visiting professors from major U.S. business schools. The only dimension ISB is doing poorly on is attracting international students, but now with these exchange programs, hopefully the word will spread.
