EDHEC B-schools global outreach

The low-profile EDHEC Business School with campuses in Lille, Nice, Paris, London and Singapore and an aggregate enrolment of 8,117 students, offers excellent infrastructure and English language curriculums at almost half the price of Americas top B-schools -Paromita Sengupta For business management education, America with its globally-renowned blue-chip B-schools — Harvard (estb.1908), Chicago Booth (1898), MIT (1914), Stanford (1925), North-western (1908) among others — which routinely top all B-school league tables, is Mecca. Alumni of these prestigious and well-endowed schools not only land the best jobs in India Inc when (and if) they return, but also have the enviable option of bagging the best entry-level jobs in the US and most countries around the world. However in recent years, the cost of an American business degree has gone through the roof and become unaffordable for students from India, since they also have to reckon with continuous depreciation of the rupee. Consequently, the majority of students from the subcontinent in American business schools tend to be the pampered progeny of promoter-directors of well-established business houses certain to be parachuted into the boardroom. Therefore, the offspring of business and corporate professionals intent on offshore business management qualifications and obliged to rely on family savings and high interest education loans grudgingly dispensed by Indian banks, are enrolling in hitherto low-profile European B-schools which according to all indicators, offer as good education in equally, if not more salubrious environments, at half the price. For instance, annual tuition and residence fees in the best European B-schools are in the range of $44,250 and $48,900 (Rs.30-34 lakh) per year cf. Harvard B-school’s $88,682 (Rs.60 lakh). After the liberalisation of the Chinese and Indian economies in the 1990s, and establishment of the World Trade Organisation (1995), managements of Europe’s insular B-schools have become aware of the importance of attracting students from around the world to promote inter-cultural respect and understanding, and provide indigenous students networking opportunities necessary for business and professional success in the rapidly expanding global economy. All of them, therefore,  have started offering business management study programmes of various duration in English, now the accepted lingua franca of global business and industry. Against this backdrop of low-profile, vintage European business management institutions beginning to challenge America’s hitherto all-conquering B-schools, in late March, the Lille (France)-based EDHEC Business School (formerly the Ecole des Hautes Edutes Commerciales (estb. 1906)) invited a group of journalists from the UK (Management Today, PIE News, and Business Reporter) and India (Economic Times, Financial Express, Times of India and EducationWorld) to acquaint them with its newly articulated aims and objectives, impressive curriculums, infrastructure and student body diversity, and to showcase the school’s state-of-the-art campuses in Lille, Nice and Paris. In addition, EDHEC has two campuses in London and Singapore with an aggregate enrolment of 8,117 students mentored by 150 permanent faculty. The visiting journalists were favourably impressed and expressed surprise about this vintage B-school’s modest international profile.  However within industry, business and the cognoscenti in Europe if not worldwide, EDHEC enjoys an…