The Higher Education Review

India stepped into 2019 holding the status of the world's sixth-largest economy, with strong potential to move up to fifth place. Gross Domestic Product growth is expected to cross 6.5 per cent by 2020 and the economy is estimated to reach $5 trillion in size by 2025. This growth is, however, contingent on our ability to harness our human capital and thus reap a demographic dividend.

Our country has no dearth of brilliant minds that are capable of steering the economy forward. However, these minds need to be nurtured through a world-class education at an advanced level. While India boasts of one of the largest networks of higher education institutions offering education in the domains of economics, management and finance, there are hardly any that match international standards of curriculum, teaching and assessment, as is evident from their conspicuous absence from all global higher education rankings.

In such a scenario, it has become all the more important for the Indian education system to adopt global standards and recalibrate the way higher education is being imparted. Considering that foreign institutions, including the top ones, are contemporaneously looking beyond their shores for greener pastures, this makes for a win-win situation.

Setting an example in this regard is Indian School of Business & Finance (ISBF), which brings the world-class education offered by The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) to Indian students at about one-fourth of the cost of obtaining it in London. Established in 2006, ISBF is located in the heart of New Delhi and is a Recognised Teaching Centre of the University of London, under whose aegis the LSE undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are offered here.

How Learning Progresses
At the undergraduate level, the school offers B.Sc. (Hons) Economics, B.Sc. (Hons) Economics & Finance, B.Sc. (Hons.) Accounting & Finance, B.Sc. (Hons) Economics & Management and B.Sc. (Hons) Business & Management. The curriculum for each programme is designed by LSE academicians, who also set and grade all the final assessments; this ensures parity of standards on both fronts vis-à-vis those applied internally at LSE.

"ISBF's mission has been to bring the best of world-class education in India. Not everyone can afford to go abroad and study at the top institutions of the world, leaving their family behind, particularly at the undergraduate level. So, we have endeavoured to tie up with the leading global universities, and LSE has consistently been ranked in the top 10, globally, in economics, management and finance. We aim to bring LSE's curriculum and know-how to students in India with an opportunity to earn a University of London degree

without going abroad and at a fraction of the cost of studying in London, eliminating the problem of accessibility and affordability," says Dr. Jitin Chadha, Founder, Indian School of Business & Finance.

"The Careers Team at ISBF also conducts industry visits, which allow students to test their knowledge in a very hands-on way"

Talking further about how ISBF's programmes are different from those offered by other institutions at the undergraduate level, Dr. Chadha says, "I don't think there are many programmes in India at this level that lead to a degree by such a prestigious institution as the University of London. Our entire curriculum comes from The London School of Economics and the examinations are marked and assessed in London. ISBF students are, therefore, truly receiving a world-class education because their grades are being evaluated by the same people who are evaluating students in London, which makes learning here unique. The degree that is being awarded has global recognition since both UOL and LSE are reputed and respected on a global scale".

Teacher Training and Pedagogy
He goes on to add, "We also have a lot of faculty training and development with our partners, empowering our professors with the best pedagogical practices through formal certifications. For instance, one of our esteemed faculty members just completed the University of London's Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and now has University of London Worldwide Recognised Tutor Status. So, the idea is not just to get the curriculum, but also develop our capacity as an institution and match the international standards of delivery of that curriculum. Besides, the LSE programmes also offer students the ability to opt for dual specialisations (the equivalent of double majors in the USA), such as Economics and Finance, or Business and Management, which are quite unique in the Indian context".

This style and standard of education helps create employable, industry-ready graduates. The curriculum is highly application-oriented, and in fact demands consistent pedagogical innovation, including the use of experiential learning techniques, which require a lot of work in the background when used for delivering rigorous undergraduate-level content. Explaining his view on this, Dr. Chadha adds, "There is a lot of gap between the quality of education that is being delivered globally versus what is being delivered in India. One of the pain points is, how do we deliver to students a quality education that compares with the highest international benchmarks? There are enough reports that are being circulated by industry veterans explaining how Indian graduates are not employable due to outdated curricula and teaching practices that haven't been revised in ages. With a curriculum like LSE's, on the other hand, there is no room for rote learning or last-minute question-spotting in a student's learning journey. Instead, what students receive is a sort of training to develop sharp analytical thinking and the ability to solve complex social problems".

That is why it is also worth its weight in gold when students apply for a Master's or for jobs. In fact, ISBF students enjoy a substantial edge over students of even the highest-ranked Indian programmes and institutions when applying for prestigious Master's programmes around the world. In the last two years alone, we've had two students be accepted onto LSE's flagship Speaking about the edge ISBF students have over their peers, Dr. Chadha says, "Our students study the world-leading LSE curriculum in the fields of Economics, Management and Finance. This is much more frequently updated and is current to global needs. MSc programme on a full scholarship each".

Creating Skilled Labour Supply
A keen spirit of enquiry informs all academic pursuit at ISBF, in line with LSE's motto rerum cognoscere causas, or 'to understand the causes of things'. This prepares students very well for the world of work, where asking questions is central to solving problems big or small. "Even our lectures are necessarily discussion-oriented. Additionally, there are skill development workshops for students to learn CV-writing, profile-building on LinkedIn, interviewing and group discussion skills as well as software like Excel and R, which are widely used in many areas of work today. Several talks by industry speakers are also organised in order to broaden and deepen their understanding of working in different sectors," explains Dr. Chadha.

The Careers Team at ISBF also conducts industry visits, which allow students to test their knowledge in a very hands-on way. This include the opportunity to attend a 2-day Bootcamp at Bombay Stock Exchange, which exposes them to several aspects of finance, and for which students are selected by UOL and LSE. All this is invaluable, for it teaches them high-order communication and interpersonal skills when they interact with industry veterans. At the workplace, it enables them to think on their feet, interact and collaborate effectively with others.

"We are continuously working to enhance our academic delivery, provide students with an ever-wider canvas for co-curricular activities and facilitate better and better placements which do justice to the peerless skill-set of a graduate of the LSE curriculum," says Dr. Chadha on the plans for ISBF.

Dr. Jitin Chadha, Founder and Director
A first-generation edupreneur, Dr. Jitin Chadha holds a Ph.D. from the University of Delhi, before which he completed a Master's degree from the University of Warwick. Dr. Chadha's vision was to make a truly world-class education accessible for students in India. Under his guidance, ISBF is delivering quality education in economics, management and finance since 2006.