In this blog, I would like to emphasize on the importance of diversity in management education. Now, diversity can come in various forms like nationalities, educational backgrounds, professional backgrounds, personalities, etc. Each student here comes with a mix of all these aspects making each one of them unique and different from the rest. Together, they make one class at ISB.
The various backgrounds of students contribute to a rich and vibrant learning environment – both inside and outside the classrooms. Students here work on several group assignments and projects wherein their diverse experiences enable multi-pronged problem-solving approaches leading to best-possible solutions. We create these study groups keeping in mind the complete profile of each student so that the group as a whole can learn & benefit from each others’ experiences. The perspectives and cultural experiences of exchange students from other countries who are on campus during the second half of the programme add to the diversity on campus.
Another interesting aspect of class diversity at ISB is that the number of women candidates has seen a consistent rise over the last few years. We see a similar trend in recruiters hiring from ISB each year. Most of the A-list recruiters at ISB have started hiring candidates with diverse profiles to bring in different perspectives and support cross fertilization of ideas in their organizations. Keeping in mind all of the above, this year we have allocated a substantial portion of our merit-based scholarships for top candidates across diverse sectors like healthcare, media, fashion, hospitality, government, etc.
To sum it up, I’d like to quote a current student – “I wake up to breakfast with a golfer, I have my lunch with a doctor from a super specialty hospital and have dinner listening to war time stories from a Major in the army.. and you know what’s so special about these people? They are the very people I call ‘classmates’ at ISB.”