International Study Trips Add Global Perspective for MBA/PGDM Students

With global experience a required part of the MBA/PGDM curriculum today, international trips are designed to give students on-the-ground experience that goes beyond what can be learned in a classroom — widening their thinking and developing knowledge and skills to manage in a globalized economy. Such global study trips provide broad business and cultural exposure of a country to all the participants.

Here it may be noted that traveling and studying abroad is nothing new in higher education. In earlier centuries, young aristocrats from America, England, and elsewhere took the “Grand Tour” of Europe to gain exposure to the arts, culture, and roots of so-called Western civilization. By the late 1960s, top B-schools around the world were sending a large percentage of its undergraduates abroad mostly to its own programs in various countries across the globe.

By most accounts these study trips fulfill the mission of providing experiential learning that enhances classroom instruction. And, one can see two clear benefits. One is the “conceptual” benefit of broadening knowledge of global issues, management, and leadership issues, or of a country or industry. The other is “personal” benefit which revolves around exercising leadership, getting to know other students better, and having a meaningful and fun experience.

Such study trips enable students to see complexities and nuances that are not evident in a class. Students who go on these organized trips definitely gain a broader view of how different economic systems of the world function.

Faculty members say that study trips also provide fodder for teaching inasmuch as the trips “allow them to generalize in a more appropriate way, to generalize what they teach and determine some of the cultural differences.” They also provide faculty with a broader set of examples and topics.

To talk of India – As one of the top B-schools in India offering Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) as its flagship programme, Delhi NCR Noida-based Asian Business School (ABS) – which is a part of Asian Education Group (AEG) and is ranked 7^th Amongst ‘Top B-Schools of Excellence’ by CSR-GHRDC – offers a unique international edge to its programme by organizing a fully paid international study trip to Oxford, UK for all its students every year. This comes as a part of ABS PGDM core curriculum.

In sync with the ABS PGDM course curriculum mandate, ABS PGDM students get to earn an ‘Executive Diploma in International Business’ on the completion of their study trip to Oxford Business College, Oxford, London. This international diploma is offered in combination with the other diplomas. The diploma lays down a comparative analysis, in various business quarters, between India and UK, for which it is imperative that students travel to Oxford for empirical study.

The fast-paced academic tour for the ABS PGDM students also serves the objective of comprehending a foreign curriculum and pedagogy as it accords them a rare opportunity to experience business and culture first-hand through cultural excursions and lectures.

The study tour is innovatively designed to bring international exposure to the students with an academic feel. An international exposure of this kind not only expands the vision, but also augments the personality of management students. The refinement is all about a wide variety of people, wonderful places, different mannerisms and opportunities to broaden one’s horizons.

And, for the students of ABS, this study tour is often the most unforgettable experience of their lives!

Read more on ABS Blog page about how exactly this fully paid study trip to Oxford-London (UK) lends a unique international edge to ABS PGDM Programme.