The Amrita School of Business offers a dual degree program at its Bengaluru campus, wherein students have the opportunity to earn an MBA from Amrita in addition to an MS (Master of Sciences) in Management from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, USA.

The first batch of students from this unique collaborative program graduated in May 2011 with MBA-MS degrees. Just before graduation, during March-April, they were at the SUNY campus in the US completing their academic requirements for the program.

“The study trip allowed students to immerse themselves in an international learning environment,” shared Dr. Pooja Sharma, Assistant Professor, one of three faculty members who accompanied the students to the US.

“The trip enabled our students gain a good insight into global business; they attended lectures and interactive sessions with renowned professors, went on local industry visits and had a very good cultural exposure.”

Among the Buffalo faculty who delivered sessions to the Amrita students were Professors Rohini Srihari, Harold Star, Kenneth Kim, Venu Govindaraju and Arun Jain. Students also participated in a course on Business Analytics by Prof. Ajay Shah, formerly the Head of Compound Design at Pfizer.

Classroom sessions were supplemented with field visits, such as the one to HSBC Bank, where students interacted with Thomas Beauford Jr., First Vice President, Operations and Shouvik Ray, Head – Supply Chain Management, Technology & Services.

Before departing for India, students went on a fun trip to Niagara Falls and New York City.

In July 2011, SUNY Buffalo played host to yet another group of Amrita students. These students comprised the second batch enrolled in the MBA-MS program. They were in Buffalo to complete their US-based academic requirements at the beginning of their second year in the program.

These students enthusiastically shared their learning.

“The objective of the pedagogy of Ms. Sima Fortsch who taught Strategic Management to us was to stretch our thoughts, fine tune our outlooks and help us see the big picture. This class broke our stereotypes.”

“Dr. Christian Tiu and Dr. Ron Huefner gave us knowledge from the world of finance. They educated us on what led to the financial crisis few years ago and spoke about the path to recovery. The energetic Dr. Charles Lindsey lectured to us on dimensions of Consumer Behavior and how it played a quintessential role in marketing products.”

“Dr. Jerry Newman, a specialist in Organizational Behavior, who went undercover to learn about the state of managers in American fast-food chains shared his experiences with us. We heard from him how the attitude of managers made a huge difference when it came to the success of a fast-food chain.”