Stanford to open India office; no plans to establish campus

Stanford's Graduate School of Business has no plans for campuses outside of the US, but it is looking to set up an office in India and will also be launching two new programmes for Indians, its dean Garth Saloner said while on a visit to Mumbai on Thursday. Bhavya Dore reports.

Stanford's Graduate School of Business has no plans for campuses outside of the US, but it is looking to set up an office in India and will also be launching two new programmes for Indians, its dean Garth Saloner said while on a visit to Mumbai on Thursday.

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"We want a permanent presence in India and it is important to be here to be building relationships, but a brick and mortar campus is not that appealing," said Saloner. "It's about transmission of ideas. We need to have a presence here to be talking to leaders, entrepreneurs." The business school is yet to finalise the office it is planning for in India but Saloner visited Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai on this trip.

The business school has just launched two new programmes open to Indians - an online certificate course and a physical programme to be delivered in Bangalore, both of which will include modules on innovation and entrepreneurship. Both programmes are aimed at working professionals. Two modules in the innovation and entrepreneurship online course are already available while the Bangalore-based course will start next September. "We saw a clear match between the hunger for innovation (in India) and what we think we can offer," said Saloner.

Indian students are among the top three foreign nationalities at the school. Despite the uncertain economic climate, Saloner said job recruitment at the campus had been "very robust" this year. "Our students have not had any problems," said Saloner.