Universal Business School has been set up by CEOs, who have headed multi-billion dollar multinational companies in over 100 countries. It offers MBA & BBA Programmes. In addition it also offers Executive Training & Management Development Programmes, Industry Consultancy & Research Projects & Leadership Development Programmes. It was established as part of Strive India Education Foundation in February 2009.
UBS has been awarded 'The Best Upcoming B-School in India' by ASSOCHAM & HRD Ministry, Government of India.
UBS claims that it offers world class living standards and has been termed a ‘FIVE STAR UNIVERSITY’ by India Today Magazine for the excellent student living accommodation within the campus for national as well as international students.
BW Disrupt interacts with Tarun Anand, Director, Universal Business School and spoke to him.
Excerpts:
How do you see yourself in comparison with the other B-Schools who do not provide a Global degree?Needless to say, while all the B-schools are doing well in their own capacity, facilitating a global degree with a cutting edge global curriculum and international pedagogic approaches which focus on experiential learning and critical thinking gives our students a clear edge over the other schools operating in the industry today. Our continuous innovative spirit and the zeal to cater the best of education standards to every student being our ultimate objective, in addition to our focused, result-oriented approach is what automatically speaks for us and makes us different from many. Ours is a world-class business school, having established as a global academic platform over the years for students coming from world over. The kind of excellence we have seen and achieved in a relatively shorter span of time as compared to other B-schools is what we believe comes as our winning point and defines the scope of progress for us in the near future.
Do you think that a global degree opens more opportunities for students? Can you give some examples of the students who have benefited with the degree?Definitely, it is an undeniable fact that a global degree is far more capable and can open doors to some of the most remarkable opportunities for students as compared to those with a national one. While it certainly adds a progressive label to one’s resume as a whole and is greatly influential in terms of seeking an employment outside the country at popular places like US, UK among others, the global degree also adds more value to your profile when applying for a job in your own country. This is so because the credentials are automatically enhanced when your level of professional outreach is wider and your capabilities are thus, relatively better established. We have had students who have received Offer letters from leading B-schools like IIM-Bangalore and ISB-Hyderabad who have rejected these Offers as their companies only accept a globally recognised MBA Degree.
Since we talk about the international exposure in India, how about giving Indian exposure to the students coming from outside India? Do they absorb the culture and diversity?Though we strongly believe in equality when it comes to ethnicity, at the same time, we are great endorsers of a healthy, friendly and much-required benefitting exchange of culture, traditions and values among all our students. While our own country’s students can definitely get better, more advanced global exposure in their interactions with the foreign students, those coming to study in our land from other international destinations also get a lot to grasp from our cultural heritage, norms, values and the hidden academic as well as spiritual treasures. We highly encourage the lively and active participation of foreign students and help them understand our culture, diversity etc. better to gather wonderful experiences back home. To our delight, we see them equally receptive and happy in absorbing all the knowledge. After their stint at UBS, they have gone back to their respective countries including USA, Germany and France and were amongst the first to get attractive jobs as they had a world view and were able to speak a different business language having experienced a rapidly developing economy. MNCs welcome diversity and will always reward diverse experiences.
Please share a brief about MILES program?The MILES program was brought to UBS given the realisation that young managers in most organizations today have a twelve hour workday, not including commuting time. This means that managers should be fit and have high energy levels. Sadly, 98% of the B-Schools in Mumbai do not have any play grounds to allow students to engage in sports. This can lead to health breakdowns, when young managers have to endure a twelve hour work day, in their corporate life. UBS has partnered with Edusports to integrate sports into the curriculum after the success of a pilot program at IIM-Bangalore whereby students engage compulsorily 3 times a week in sports ranging from Football, Cricket, Basketball, Volleyball, Touch Rugby, Badminton and Team games and have monthly tournaments. They improve their health and fitness levels, develop essential team building and leadership skills, have fun whilst relieving stress and we measure their Endurance, Speed, Flexibility, Strength and Adaptability and give a report to the corporates which gives them a tremendous edge towards landing high paying opportunities.
What are the new and different measures UBS will be introducing for its students? We are introducing a first of its kind Dual Continent Dual MBA Degree in International Business and Economics with our partnership with University of Economics, Bulgaria. Every student will be in a class with 50% Europeans. Each Indian student will go to Europe for 4 months and each European student will come to India for a 4 month period. Hence for the majority of the class the learning experience will be truly diverse as there will be a minimum of 10 nationalities in each class. Indian students will be learning contemporary European issues and embrace European cultures and European students will do the same in India. The program has been designed by leading Faculty from Europe and India to develop the skills through experiential learning, make the students adaptable across cultures and position them for global careers.
How do you see taking UBS in the near future?We wish to take UBS to a whole new level in the near future, with an aim to place it right next to the top academic institutions across the globe and not just India. We envision to carve a niche name in the sector with our holistic approach and novel ideologies. Our endeavour is to keep coming up with innovative strategies and creating advanced education programs for all students. Also, to further reach a point, wherein, we can offer customized courses to every individual world over in accordance with their interest, selected arena, flexibility, affordability as well as accommodate their preference for international location so as to facilitate a first-hand global experience alongside a global degree.
