From India to UK: Why Indian Deans are Excelling on the World Stage

Most of the deans have similar backgrounds, they were born in India, attended elite technology and management schools in the country and then spent their postgraduate years in the United States, where many rose to senior positions.

Paul Almeida, dean of Georgetown University in Washington DC's McDonough School of Business, earned his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, followed by a PhD from Wharton, and says that education is a priority for Indians and that they are conscious of the brands of academic institutions.

Almeida says that high-quality business education was essentially a US phenomenon until recently, and careers in business were well rewarded and respected. Like other areas, over the years some of the Indian professors became successful as academics and lead their schools as deans.

Whereas as Renowned educationist Soumitra Dutta, Oxford former Dean, believes that Restricting freedom at an early age in schools by expecting children to write exactly as written in textbooks reflects later in industry, which leaves less scope for innovation due to lack of creativity.

Soumitra Dutta was conferred with the Eighth IILM Distinguished Global Thinker Award by IILM chairperson Malvika Rai, which has been conferred on Shashi Tharoor, Meghnad Desai, Sam Pitroda, and M S Swaminathan.

Rangarajan Sundaram, dean of New York University's Stern School of Business, mentions the high poverty levels in postwar India. It was the elite/competitive nature of IITs and IIMs which resulted in models being developed, a middle class and educational aspiration that then attracted him and his peers to the US.

Growing Number of Indians Pursuing Higher Education in the US

USA is still the first destination for Indian students to study abroad. According to a 2023 report, the number of international students from India to the US increased by 35% and resulted in an all-time high of 268,923 students in the academic year of 2022-23.

The rise in the number of Indian students taking a trip to the United States points to a problem with Indian education, says Devesh Kapur, professor of south Asia studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

“I firmly believe that the mirror image is how weakly Indian higher education has performed,” he says. “India has given to the United States, especially, such talent that it is worth thinking what they would be doing had they not left and what India has lost.

The increasing number of Indians in top leadership role at leading universities around the world speaks of the depth of Indian talent pool and education's emphasis in the country. But Soumitra Dutta, a famous educationist, says it is not just about academic performance, it's about creativity, innovation and thinking outside the box.

Although the Indian higher education system has been able to produce professionals on par with the best in the world, the continued flow of talented students and academics to other nations such as the United States of America, does beg the question on the quality, flexibility and opportunities available in the Indian system of higher education. In a world striving for knowledge as a global hub, nurturing and sustaining talent, and shaping leaders, entrepreneurs, and thinkers of the future is crucial to India's success in this endeavor.