MUMBAI: Students from the Dubai campus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad were in Spain for their international immersion programme when war broke out in West Asia, forcing the institute to rethink how it would run the programme. Rather than shift classes online, the institute moved the entire batch to its Ahmedabad campus, arguing that a fully virtual format would undermine the learning experience.
The 35 students are part of IIM Ahmedabad’s Dubai-based full-time one-year MBA programme for mid-career professionals. Sending them back to Dubai or switching to online instruction would have disrupted the one-year course, prompting the institute’s leadership to relocate the cohort to India until the conflict subsides.
“We learnt during the pandemic that while the entire world moved online, students who stayed back in the campus preferred the interaction with their classmates while maintaining social distance protocols,” said Sunil Sharma, dean of IIM Ahmedabad’s Dubai campus. He added that engagement with peers, and reading classmates’ body language, remains an important part of MBA learning.
Sharma told Mint that he and the institute’s director met and decided to bring the Dubai cohort to the Ahmedabad campus until the war subsides.
The conflict involving the US and Israel against Iran, now in its third week, has spilled across West Asia, forcing Indian companies and institutions operating in the region to reassess their operations and contingency plans.
Other Indian educational institutions with campuses in Dubai are also weighing how best to continue classes if the conflict escalates.
Besides IIM Ahmedabad, BITS Pilani operates an engineering campus in Dubai that was established in 2000. Mint has learnt that the college has started online classes, though it did not respond to Mint’s queries.
SP Jain School of Global Management and Amity University also have campuses in Dubai but did not respond to queries emailed last week.
Education analysts said the decision to relocate students or move online often depends less on pedagogy and more on logistics.
“IIM Ahmedabad has taken a smart move by bringing the entire batch in Dubai to India. They could do it because their batch strength is small,” said Narayanan Ramaswamy, partner and leader for education and skill development practice at consulting firm KPMG.
He added that institutions with larger cohorts may have fewer options. “Institutions like BITS on the other hand have a larger batch and online-synchronous / hybrid models may be the best option,” he said, noting that some courses such as traditional MBA programmes can adapt well to virtual formats, but logistics should not outweigh the quality of education.
Business impact
Indian companies with staff in the region are also monitoring the situation. An estimated 9 million Indians work in West Asia and many Indian companies with employees in the region have planned for their safety. Domestic firms, including Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, KEC International Ltd, Larsen and Toubro Ltd, Afcons Infrastructure Ltd, and Adani Ports & SEZ Ltd, are monitoring the situation.
The war has also cast uncertainty over parts of the region that have long attracted expatriate professionals and corporate executives with the promise of higher incomes and a better lifestyle. The Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) reputation as a safe and stable business environment has come under strain.
For instance, more than 3.5 million Indians live in the UAE alone, accounting for the country’s second-largest diaspora, according to data from the ministry of external affairs. These include Indian-origin and non-resident Indians. Over 2.4 million Indian expats live in Saudi Arabia, nearly 1 million in Kuwait, about 830,000 in Qatar, and more than 300,000 in Bahrain. Just under 700,000 Indians live in Oman.