Scottish Immersion - An Amazing Experience

Students from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) enjoyed a two-week trip to Scotland as part of a new exchange programme with Strathclyde Business School. Here, Breety Majumdar describes her experience.

As our airplane touched ground on July 30, twenty enthusiastic souls were busy planning for two weeks of learning and fun in the beautiful city of Glasgow.

One of the most exciting parts of the curriculum for the one-year MBA programme of IIM Calcutta, commonly known as PGPEX, is a two week international immersion programme at globally recognised universities. The module has been designed to provide the flavour of learning in cross cultural environment and to build an effective network.

Strathclyde Business School, which like IIM Calcutta is a triple-accredited business school and one of the top business schools in United Kingdom was my natural choice. The immersion was scheduled from July 31 to August 14. Twenty of us had the wonderful opportunity to immerse in the ever-welcoming Glasgow community and had an enriching learning experience from renowned faculties.  We were exposed to recent developments in international economics and business disruptions and the global impact of these events.

The immersion schedule was diligently planned to have a mixture of classroom sessions and relevant industry visits. The classroom sessions covered multiple facets of business such as Strategy, Finance, Human Resource and Marketing and centred on current disruptions such as Brexit, Fintech and changes in the outsourcing industry.

We had an excellent session on “Brexit - What does it mean” which gave an insight on how Brexit would impact the Scottish and UK economy and its relationship with Eurozone and India. Similarly interesting was a session taken by Professor Phil Taylor on latest trends in Outsourcing and how near-shoring, offshoring and re-shoring would influence India’s outsourcing economy.

An informative and relevant session on Fintech and how the financial sector is evolving provided us with a new perspective. The classroom sessions were very interactive and intensive and made lasting impressions.

We were also exposed to the functioning of the Scottish industries and banking sector. The visit to Babcock International Group, an engineering giant in Scottish economy and Cruachan Power Station of Scottish Power opened us up to how the engineering firms function in UK.

The day we spent at the extremely well-planned office of Royal Bank of Scotland provided us with knowledge of the latest developments in the Banking sector, and how RBS is reinventing itself as a new age bank. We also visited Clydesdale Bank where the focus was on understanding Customer Behaviour and expectations.

Interactive sessions with Strathclyde graduates and entrepreneurs was an enriching experience. The immersion programme ended on a happy note – literally - with bagpiper’s music while we received our certificates. 

The best part of the trip was the vibrant city of Glasgow and the wonders of Scotland which mesmerised each one of us and we returned brimful with exultant memories.  The whole experience can be summed up in three words: “People Make Glasgow.”

About Breety Majumdar

Breety Majumdar is currently pursuing an MBA from IIM Calcutta (PGPEX). She has seven years’ experience as a reliability professional in the engineering sector and previously worked with Alstom Transport, Medtronic and LM Wind Power.