06.25.08 by Bärbel Schwertfeger

Indian students: Increasing demand

"The demand from India has increased significantly," says Christian Homburg, President of the Mannheim Business School. Indeed, there is a string of brilliant candidates for the next class who would gladly be accepted into the program. There are currently three Indians in the class. One of them is Sujay Rajagopalan. "For me, Europe is one of the leading economic powers," says the 27-year-old engineer who has studied in India and Australia and already worked there as a marketing manager. "Therefore I also wanted to learn something about the local business practices as well as learn a European language."

In comparison to the previous year, the number of applicants has increased by 50 percent, confirms Volker Stößel, spokesman for the Handelshochschule Leipzig (HHL). The “outstanding applications” from India in particular are gladly welcomed. There are two students from India in the current class and five are expected for the next.

Annegret Zurawski, Academic Director at the Gisma Business School in Hanover, explains that there are 12 Indian students in the current class and that there are already more than 60 applications from India for the next class. The Indians often produce particularly high scores on the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test). In addition, they are considered to be very well-informed about the MBA market. “They are very active in internet communities and research worldwide,” observes Zurawski.

Gisma therefore profits from the fact that its graduates also receive a degree from the American partner university Purdue. “This simply distinguishes Gisma from other European schools,” confirms Sathish Kumar. He himself consciously chose Germany because he feels it is a leader in technology and has a different culture than the Anglo-Saxon countries. Also important is the short program length of one year. “After five years work experience, I can’t afford a long break,” says the 28-year-old engineer who is financing his MBA with savings and a loan.

“Most students want to gather work experience here and work at least a few years, to be able to pay back their loan,” says Gisma Director Zurawski. This would often be significantly more difficult on an Indian salary. Kumar would also like to stay in Germany for a few years if he can find a good job here. At German companies, however, the MBA still doesn’t have the significance that it does in other countries, he observes. In his experience, German companies were looking for young professionals rather than managers, and in middle management jobs the work experience is what counts and not the MBA.

Interview with Sathish Kumar Sampath