A lot of my friends back at home
have pinged me up to ask, ‘Okay we
understand that you’re doing an MBA and it is by XLRI. But what the hell are
you doing in China!’ I think it’s time I’m in a position to answer those
questions.
I’m in a Global MBA exchange
program conducted jointly by XLRI Jamshedpur,
India, Tongji University, China and Case Western Reserve University, USA. Each school has exactly
an equal amount of contribution towards the course. That is, each school,
including XLRI, chooses 20 students by its own format of selections and
examinations.
XLRI did it via XAT or GMAT followed by essay submissions followed by a round
of GDPIs to select the batch from India. Similarly, Case and Tongji picked
their students in their own ways. So this prospective batch of 60 students, 20
from each country, goes around the world together spending a semester in each
University, learning from their faculty in their own campuses. The 4th
and hence final semester is when the batch breaks up according to their home
schools and the students spend the final semester at their home University. For
me, this would be XLRI. This would be the time for placements, convocations,
thesis presentations and winding up the course.
This is the first time XLRI is
conducting this course. Infact, this is the first time a course like this is
ever conducted in the world. There are study abroad programs, but creating a
classroom from 3 different schools situated in 3 different countries and
keeping them together for 3 semesters in 3 different environments makes this
course one of its kind. And from what I hear as an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur,
this is the future of education. This is where education is headed. Putting
that with some of the best schools in the country, and I think we have a
winner.
But everything isn’t as clear for
me as my words are here. Being the first batch of the course I faced and am
still facing some expected and unexpected surprises. Like who would’ve thought
that in my class there would be not only married students who are daring to
leave their families behind for 2 semesters to pursue this program in a foreign
location; but also a girl who’s daring to leave her beautiful newborn daughter
in pursuit of this opportunity. Or that I’d have the opportunity to explore
Shanghai with a 40-year old classmate who, I can say with certainty, is a hell
lot cooler than I am. Or that Tongji and Case, being schools of international
repute themselves will attract students not only from China and the US
respectively, but from countries all over the world. Or that XLRI would be the
only University who’d be able to fill its 20 seats. Or that I’d continue
meeting new surprises and challenges throughout my stay in Shanghhai, and
perhaps throughout this program.
So here I am. In a class of 49
students from 5 nationalities, being taught by Chinese professors everyday, living
in a campus with over two thousand international students, in a city with
150,000 expats, I find new opportunities everyday. Every night (or morning depending on the number of
assignments) when I wake up, I know I’ve learnt something. Be it absorbing
a culture shock of Iranian cheek-kisses or understanding the Golden Circle
model of Strategy, I know I’m getting an experience which few would be lucky to
have.
Of course there the pros and cons
of the decision we took of coming here and it’s not all rainbows and unicorns,
but life is what you make of it. We’ve undoubtedly been given a great platform
to showcase ourselves to the world. In the end, it will depend on us where we
wish to take this story.
