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'Time for specialised MBA education is here'
Careers 360
|November 2025
Rakesh Mohan Joshi, vice-chancellor of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) - a deemed university shared that the new foreign campus in Dubai, being built at the Expo City, will be operational from the next academic session. During an interaction with Shradha Chettri, he also spoke about how the value of general MBA is declining and why institutes need to focus on specialised management disciplines. Edited excerpts from the conversation:
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Q. IIFT has recently announced a new foreign campus. Can you give us some details?
A. We have got all approvals from the governments of Dubai and India. We are on a strong footing. Our IIFT team is soon headed for a visit to Dubai. It took almost two years for us to get the approvals.
IIFT has a core strength in international trade and business and Dubai is a hub in that area. Our programmes are highly sought after in Dubai. We are going to start long-term courses, which would be MBA, certain diploma programmes, and certificate programmes. Importantly, we have an executive development programme in Dubai and some research programmes focussed on international trade.
Our campus will come up at the Expo city in Dubai - a hub of international trade and business. We are likely to commence our programmes in the next academic year. Our Dubai campus will serve as an international platform. We will try to customise our programmes according to the need of the place. We are also evaluating the Dubai market so that we can launch the BBA programme. We are working on it.
Q. IIFT also has several branches in the country now. How has the expansion helped the institute grow?
A. Earlier, we had just one campus in Delhi. Then we started one in Kolkata in 2006. We also have a campus at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, where we launched the MBA programme and are in the process of shifting to a new campus. It is coming up on 30 acres. We have also commenced our new campus in GIFT City, Gandhinagar, where we have our MBA in international trade and business. GIFT City is the place to be - it is the global financial centre which has state-of-the-art multinational companies. With this expansion, the brand value of IIFT would increase.
This story is from the November 2025 edition of Careers 360.
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