The number of Indian and other foreign students applying for MBA courses in America is dropping sharply. This is because Indian MBAs in America find they do not get practical training visas, let alone work visas upon graduation.

So most Indian students find themselves burdened with over $200,000 in loans taken to pay for their MBA degrees in America. Upon returning to India, after their American MBA education, it will take them at least 20 years to repay this debt.

Given this situation, more of India’s top students are seeking jobs with American companies in India or pursuing MBA degrees in Canada. Given its shortage of skilled labor, Canada is aggressively seeking immigrants, especially top engineers and other technical graduates from India.

Indian MBA graduates of American schools, even if lucky to find a practical training visa, are able to repay only a small fraction of their loans. This is because the practical training visas for MBA programs are valid for only one year.

Several schools in America, such as the Columbia Business School in New York, are creating joint programs of MBA and technical courses. Foreign graduates of such programs can be eligible for practical training visas that are valid for three years. With three years of practical training work in the U.S., an Indian student can repay a big portion of their loans for MBA studies.

Such joint programs are aimed at boosting applications from top Indian students so that the schools can raise the quality of their graduates and maintain their rankings among business schools. The Columbia business school appears to have appointed a dean to take the school in this new direction.

On July 1, 2019, Costis Maglaras took over as Dean of the Columbia University’s Business School. Maglaras joined the school faculty in 1998 and has held such positions at the school as director of the PhD program from 2011 to 2017 and chair of the Decision, Risk, and Operations Division from 2015 to 2018. Last year, Maglaras received the Dean’s Award for Innovation in the Curriculum for his work in designing and launching the school’s technology and analytics curriculum.

In an interview with The Financial Times, Dean Maglaras described the new focus of the school of combining the MBA program with technical and data skills.

https://www.ft.com/content/4eb337ca-b8f8-11e9-96bd-8e884d3ea203

Photo: new campus of the Columbia Business School in New York.