The buzzword in B-schools this season is foreign tie-up. From the Indian Institute of Management in Joka to the International School of Business in Salt Lake, institutes are vying with one another to find partners abroad.

While established institutes want to forge ties with their foreign counterparts to increase the chances of foreign placements for students, lesser known B-schools take the same route to attract more students. Competition among B-schools is often the driving force behind international collaborations.

“Management institutes that have links with universities abroad attract more students as more and more multinational companies are looking for managers with global exposure,” said Bikram Dasgupta, the chairman of Globsyn Business School.

The institute has recently tied up with a number of foreign universities, including Tulane University in the US and Coventry and Glasgow universities in the UK. Students of most of the courses have to study some semesters in Calcutta and the rest at the foreign university concerned. They are generally offered internships abroad.

“A foreign stint, no matter how short, always looks good on the CV. Studying in a B-school with foreign partners is the best way of getting exposure abroad,” said Biju Abraham, professor of business environment at IIM Calcutta, which has more than 30 global tie-ups.

Student and teacher exchange programmes and collaborative research are regularly undertaken at the B-school.

This year, the students of the postgraduate programme for executives will be heading to Monash University in Australia and Brunel University in the UK for the three-week international immersion programme.

Smaller institutes are responding to demands of the students. “One of the reasons I opted for this course is that it offers students a choice to go to Napier University in the UK. Many of my classmates have chosen to go abroad,” Kaustav Chatterjee, pursuing an MBA at the International School of Business in Salt Lake.

Not all students are worried about the additional expenses. “I will be applying for one of the programmes at Globsyn because I’ll get a foreign degree at a very low cost. A lakh more than the fee for a normal MBA course is not a big deal,” said a student doing her graduation in a south Calcutta college.