Last month, St Xavier’s College of Kolkata, one of the most orthodox educational institutions in India, announced collaboration with the University of Manitoba, Canada.
For St Xavier’s, one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious educational institutions that has steadfastly stuck to its independent values, this collaboration is significant – it is its first partnership with any external institution in its 150-year history. Despite being affiliated with a local university, St Xavier’s resisted all types of external intervention and insisted on autonomy, which it finally gained two years back.
“It is significant because for one, St Xavier’s has become sufficiently flexible to make educational collaboration workable,” said Professor Michael Trevan, dean of the University of Manitoba, Canada. “[And also because] this bilateral agreement may be used in future to create multi-lateral pacts globally where St Xavier’s could be a part of such pacts.”
St Xavier’s is not alone. Over the past two years, India has seen an influx of many marquee names, including Harvard, Kellogg, Michigan University, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Institute of Technology (all in the US), Grenoble Ecole de Management (France), and Aston Business School (United Kingdom), while research-oriented institutions like the London Business School, Stanford University and University of California Los Angeles Anderson School of Management, and many others from the world over are working towards setting up bases in India.