Washington University partners IIT-Bombay for e-MBA degree

Mumbai: Washington University in St Louis (WUSTL) and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) have jointly launched a combined US-India joint executive MBA degree programme. The new programme, which will confer a joint MBA degree, will be modelled after WUSTL's executive MBA in China and the US.
"This is our first joint degree programme that we have in Washington University and conveys our commitment to partnership and confidence in IIT Bombay," Mark S Wrighton, chancellor of Washington University told ET in an exclusive interaction on Monday.
"We expect enrolment from companies that are based outside India and the ones that are based in India. That development of network of business professionals will be valuable for those who enroll," he said.
"Back home in the US I have spoken to a lot of companies that have operations in India and I have had the chance to speak to the CEOs of three important St Louis-headquartered companies, including Emerson, which has 10,000 employees or more in India, Monsanto and Sigma Aldrich and each of those companies has committed to having one or two employees in their first cohort of students in this joint EMBA programme," said Wrighton. The partnership will also enable IIT Bombay to connect with a large number of businesses in many sectors, other than technology, and complement their ongoing activities of industry academia linkages.
"At IIT Bombay, we see this as a great interface to industry. We already have strong connections with the industry on the technology side; this way we will get an opportunity to connect on the business side, too," said Devang V Khakhar, director, IIT Bombay. Classes will be held in the IIT Bombay campus and taught by faculty from WUSTL's Olin Business School and IIT Bombay's Shailesh J Mehta School of Management.
The programme will be of 18-month duration and classes will be offered four days a month. It will end with a two-week exposure at the Washington University. The first session of the programme will commence from early 2015. The tuition fees will be $55,000-$60,000, which is 50% less than its current cost in the US.
"The curriculum will draw upon the expertise of not just the two business schools but also of IIT Bombay and Washington University," said Mahendra Gupta, the Indian origin dean of WUSTL's Olin Business School. "There are two countries that are going to have a major economic impact on the world, in addition to the existing leaders in the western hemisphere, that is China and India," Gupta said.
The programme is meant for professionals with at least seven years of experience. "Our executives will be representing all sectors including women in such a way that we will be able to open the door not only for corporate leaders but also in the fields of social entreprenuership, CSR, policy perspectives, government leaders, bureaucrats, and NGOs," said S Bhargava, head of SJMSOM.