India immersion tour gives students global insight

8 Oct 2013
MBA students in India

MBA students from The University of Queensland Business School have been helping to build links with one of the world’s fastest-growing markets on a pioneering trip to India.

During the School’s first Indian Immersion trip, they met business leaders and diplomats at the High Commission in Delhi, worked with a microfinance charity in the slums and were even featured in the Indian media.

Twenty students took part in the trip, which aimed to give them an in-depth insight into the fast-growing Indian market and the business, political, economic and cultural factors which help to shape it.

They were accompanied by Dr Sarah Kelly, Director of the MBA program, Professor Peter Liesch and Michael Kasprowicz, the former Australian test cricketer and UQ Business School MBA student, who is well known in India and who is the School’s goodwill ambassador to the country. As a result of its success, the Business School is planning to make the Indian Immersion tour an annual event.

During their visit, students met companies from a range of sectors, including IT and technology, pharmaceutical, marketing, resources, retail and banking, and attended lectures at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad on subjects including IT and outsourcing, innovation and entrepreneurship.

In Delhi they attended an industry panel at the High Commission alongside some globally successful business figures. They were also able to see the non-profit sector in action in the city by working with Opportunity International Australia and its local affiliate, the global microfinance charity for which they had helped to raise funds prior to the trip.

“The Indian Immersion has been a great success, with student feedback overwhelmingly positive,” said Dr Kelly. “Immersion allows students to develop a truly global perspective. First-hand experience is more engaging and memorable and provides a depth of insight that cannot be matched in class. Many students have told us that their perspective on the country has altered and that they could better distil some of the theory they studied in the applied context.

“Our visit to India received very positive media attention there and we have secured some unique contacts. It has helped to strengthen UQ Business School’s international connections and has been beneficial for students to develop their own networks and identify study and career opportunities there. We hope this immersion trip will be the first of many – not just to India but to other emerging markets around the world.”

The UQ Business School business immersion experience, offered to MBA students, seeks to broaden the students’ outlook and perspectives on the various business, political, economic and cultural factors in emerging markets. For more information on the UQ Business School MBA program, visit www.business.uq.edu.au/mba

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