The Schulich School of Business at York University and GMR Group, one of the world’s leading infrastructure developers, announced yesterday that they have entered into an understanding to build a Schulich campus in Hyderabad, India.
Schulich’s GMR Campus will be the first full-fledged campus of a major, top-ranked international business school in India. It will operate as a seamless extension of Schulich’s Toronto campus, ensuring the same high quality of programs, faculty and students.
Schulich will initially offer its two-year MBA program to 120 students at the Hyderabad campus, along with its executive education programs. Under the agreement, Schulich will develop the learning environment and academic infrastructure while GMR Group will provide the land and the physical campus.
The campus will represent a substantial, long-term capital investment to provide a state-of-the-art setting for students, faculty, staff and executives. Subject to approval under the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill that is currently before the Indian parliament and final approvals by the boards of York University and the GMR Group, admissions would commence no later than 2013.
“The GMR
Campus of the Schulich School of Business will be a mirror image of Schulich’s Toronto campus, with first-rate facilities, international faculty and an internationally focused curriculum,” said Schulich Dean Dezsö Horváth (left). “We will attract the best and the brightest students from India and abroad and prepare them for global careers in India and elsewhere in the world.”
“GMR will bring its world-class infrastructure development skills to the table, while the Schulich School of Business will bring its expertise as one of the world’s top-rated MBA programs and executive education providers,” said V. Raghunathan, chief executive officer of the GMR Varalakshmi Foundation.
Over the past 20 years, Schulich has steadily expanded its global footprint and has played a major role in setting up and running successful MBA programs in China, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Last year, the school established a twinning arrangement with The S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research in Mumbai to establish The Schulich MBA in India, the first MBA program to be delivered in the country by a leading international business school from outside India. The school pioneered Canada’s first International MBA (IMBA) and International BBA (iBBA) degrees, as well as North America’s first ever cross-border executive MBA degree, the Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA.
GMR Group is a Bangalore-headquartered global infrastructure major with interests in airports, energy, highways and urban infrastructure. Additionally, GMR Group is committed to social development initiatives and executes these through its corporate social responsibility arm, the GMR Varalakshmi Foundation.