HEC-IIMB partnership leads to active collaboration on student exchange programme

Bangalore, September 12, 2009: The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) and the HEC School of Management (HEC), a 125-year old academic institution based in Paris, France, have successfully extended their on-going partnership to a student exchange programme.

In the first year of the HEC IIMB Exchange Programme (HIEP), fourteen students of HEC visited IIMB during September 7-12, 2009. These students are working executives with considerable experience, ranging from five to fifteen years, across a number of industries.  They are of different nationalities, coming from countries such as Italy, Brazil, France, the USA, Senegal and France.  During their one-week stay they visited a number of companies and attended lectures.

In exchange, a batch of fourteen students of IIMB, selected for this programme, will visit Paris in the first week of December 2009.   They will be exposed to the business environment in Europe similarly, through a series of classroom lectures and industry visits.

"We are delighted to have HEC students here on the IIMB campus," said Professor Pankaj Chandra, Director IIMB. "In classroom and informal interactions, we were impressed with the depth of interest in Indian business issues, and the range of inquiry into socio-economic topics. Evidently, the students have covered considerable ground during their visit."

HIEP is a new initiative under the student exchange activity at IIMB.  As part of this initiative, up to twenty students from IIMB will visit HEC Paris and an equal number of students from HEC will visit IIMB every year.  The students of IIMB will work jointly on projects with their counterparts on the other side on topics that are of mutual interest.  These projects are expected to lead to a deep appreciation of the business environment on either side, in a short period of time.

Apart from serving as a platform for promoting cross-country and cross cultural appreciation, HIEP is a part of an ongoing relationship between IIMB and HEC.  It is expected to lead to further collaborative initiatives in research and management education between the two institutions.

IIMB has an active student exchange programme with more than ninety partner universities across Asia, Europe, North America, Australia and Canada.  The exchange programme is intended to provide international diversity and an international exposure to the students of IIMB. 

As part of the exchange programme students from foreign universities spend a full academic term at IIMB.  Similarly, IIMB's students spend a term at one of the partner universities. 

The number of international students visiting IIMB as part of the student exchange has been increasing steadily over the past decade.  During the current year more than ninety students will visit IIMB.  Sixty three students from IIMB are currently visiting universities across the world.