Business Standard

S P Jain plans to set up campus in Canada

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Kalpana Pathak Mumbai

Indian B-schools are tapping the world’s estimated 30 million NRIs and PIOs

Mumbai-based S P Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) is planning to set up a campus in Canada. The institute, which has two international campuses in Dubai and Singapore, is pursuing due diligence regarding the new project.

“The institute is tapping the Non-resident Indian (NRI) population in the region. There is a lot of demand for management education by this section of Indian population. The institute’s centers at Dubai and Singapore too have a good number of NRI students in the campus,” said a source familiar with the development. The institute is working on other details of the project, which would be finalised shortly, he added.

 

Indian institutes such as, S P Jain are either already tapping into this resource with their international campuses, or are planning to do so. The NRI and PIO population across the world is estimated over 30 million living in about 130 countries. This includes the Manipal University which is now seeking for an alliance in Muscat for its management programme.

The Manipal group has two universities in India and seven campuses across the world. Some of them include Manipal University, Sikkim Manipal University, Manipal College of Medical Science — Pokhara, Nepal, Melaka Manipal Medical College Malaysia, and Kasturba Medical College International Centre — Antigua.

In fact, Manipal Univeristy is also setting up India’s first PIO University in Bangalore. The group has already submitted a detailed project report to the Ministry of overseas Indian Affairs which is studying it. “With education being expensive in countries like the US and Britain, overseas Indians are increasingly aiming Indian universities for higher education. This is where the PIO univerisity will help them,” H S Ballal, pro-vice chancellor of Manipal Univeristy told Business Standard.

B-schools, throughout the country are also gearing up for the competition they could face from international universities once they are permitted by the Indian government to set up campuses in India. While the government is still to decide on whether or not to allow foreign universities in India, industry players say few US and UK univerisities are considering India as their destination in Asia.

SP Jain, for instance, had held an internal meeting of faculty members recently, to plan a strategy to prepare for competition from foreign B-schools. Towards this end, it has also decided to hire and compete for good faculty and students. “Once foreign universities are allowed in the country, Indian schools will face a tough competition. We have to recruit the best available faculty and students. It’s better that we gear up and prepare ourselves in advance for the challenges,” said a faculty member.

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First Published: Aug 17 2009 | 12:55 AM IST

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