By Jacob Parackal

Thanks to globalisation, the best universities in the developed countries are being swarmed by students from all over the world – students are crossing their national boundaries to educate themselves in a global environment with the dream of becoming a global citizen.

Universities as well as national governments are offering various facilities to them in terms of scholarships so that the truly capable students can get the best opportunities for studying abroad. When the bright part for the students is that a lots of opportunities and avenues are available to them to help them study abroad, there is still the problem of the high cost of education, which has particularly proven to be a big hindrance for students coming from weak financial backgrounds. 

If you get a chance to study abroad, you may manage to arrange the college fees, but still, the cost of living while studying in US or European countries is always an issue of significant importance. Even if the college fees are paid, but you cannot manage your limited resources prudentially, you may have to abandon your dream run midway before touching its finishing line.

Here are some tips that will help you manage your limited financial resource while studying abroad:

• The first and foremost thing is to prepare a budget, and if possible, collect the information about the most common and essential expenses from someone who is already studying or has studied in the same university or at least in the same country. Your budget should be divided into two parts depending on the information you have collected and depending on the facilities that your scholarship will provide you at free of cost.
  • The first part of your budget should be for essential expenses that you have to incur while studying abroad, like monthly cost of:  Food, lodging, clothing, tuition fees, study materials, travelling, telephone, utilities, health insurance and essential personal expenses
  • The second part of your budget should consists of the expense for recreation, site seeing etc.

• The first priority is of course meeting the minimum basic requirements as listed out in the essential expenses part of your budget. Get a detailed analysis of the expenses, and after computing the total, compare it with the finance that you will be provided with. While thinking about the source of finance, always check the amount that you are going to get in your hand as disposable income per month after deducting tax (some scholarships or financial assistance are often taxed based on the policy of the country), or after deducting the exchange fees (the banks or the financial institutions acting as the exchange houses often charge fees when exchanging one currency into other).

• Always make sure that that you add an additional percentage to the total of the expenses as calculated by you, because of the price fluctuations in the market. This contingency fund will make sure that you will never run out of your fund while meeting the necessary expenses while studying abroad. After comparing the total budgeted expenses with the amount for spending in your hand, you can see whether you have some extra income to spend towards the items listed in the second part of your budget.

• One important thing you have to remember that, before spending on your recreational activities, if there is any surplus after meeting the essential costs, it is better to set aside a percentage as saving, because you never know when some extra bucks will be needed for your educational purpose. It may happen that you have to go for some extra tuition to have a good grip on the subject and that could be very essential to get a good grade in your exams.

• Safekeeping of money is another important thing. Take utmost precaution in keeping cash (it is better to carry a bare minimum amount of cash as per the requirement of a single day as planned in advance) and in using the ATM.

• While using the ATMs or bank accounts for retrieving money, it is better to keep a day to day track for the transactions you have made, so as to ensure that no mistakes have been made by either party to the transaction. Moreover, this habit will help you to stick to your budgeted expenses also.

• Shopping is one item you have to be careful about. A properly planned shopping can save you a good amount of money. Before you go for shopping, collect reliable information about the exchange rates prevailing on that particular day (exchanges rate fluctuates each and every day) so that you can check whether you are getting the right price (in terms of the home currency of that country). If a top rated service is not an essential one, it is better to find a discount shop. 

• When using public transport, if possible and permitted always try to use your student ID to reduce the cost of transportation a bit.

• Always try to pay bills within the due date or you may have to bear an extra as fine.

• Always check the number of times you can use your ATM card without any additional charges. If additional charges are to be paid when the card is used to withdraw money from the ATMs of other banks, avoid using those ATMs as much as possible.

However, in this discussion I have has not touched upon the expenses involved in banking transactions or how to monitor the exchange rate in the best possible manner. It is always better to take a careful note of these factors also, as sometimes the exchange rate offered by various banks or the service charges of various banks differ widely and can impact your finances considerably.

Whatever, may be the budgeting or planning, one thing is important and that is that the implementation of all these planning ultimately depends upon you. Moreover, you have to be flexible to cope with unforeseen expenses that you may not have budget for. At the end of the day it is your determination and not always the judicious use of financing, that will help you to reach your goal of having the best degree from the best possible college.

Contributing Blogger Jacob Parackal is a 2011 alumnus of Hult International Business School. He has more than 4+ years in strategic consulting for top MNC companies. He is currently the co-founder of  ‘Select My Tutor’ and runs its operations. Cover image Courtesy newbeatsocial.com

By Jacob Parackal

The nature of companies has changed along with the change in the global economic scenario – most companies are now multinationals – they are conducting business in different countries around the world.

This change in the business world has also changed how companies choose their employees. Since employees have to work in an environment comprising of people from different cultures, each with a different way of doing work, MNCs are increasingly opting for MBAs who are capable of delivering the best possible performance in such an environment.

Having ‘managers without borders’ is now an important aim for most companies in the world.

More business schools are both increasing diversity in terms of candidates they accept as well as introducing diversity in their course curriculum to make students capable of adapting to workplaces with diverse work cultures at play. 

In this context, Hult International Business School bears the distinction of  having been ranked among the top B-schools for having the most international class. 

Nurturing diversity is important: diversity helps inculcate an appreciation of multiple perspectives and an appreciation of what is ‘different’ from us. Over a long term, encouraging diversity can strengthen the workplace and the larger community – it prepares the student to be a good citizen in a pluralistic society. 

Understanding the culture and a society and a country is also important to do business in a particular country and has significant impact on the success of the business in that society. 

The study of Human Resource Management and Fortune Magazine has revealed an interesting statistics through a survey they conducted. In the survey fifty two percent of the employees said that a good diversity in the work place improves the relationship with the clients whereas seventy nine percent of the employees said that diversity is the most vital element to improve their corporate cultures. Seventy seven percent of employees said that diversity helps to reduce conflict between the employees thereby increasing the quality of the decision making process which ultimately is reflected in increased creativity and productivity within the organisation.

In a recent survey, seventy seven percent of employees said that diversity helps to reduce conflict between employees thereby increasing the quality of the decision making process which ultimately is reflected in increased creativity and productivity within the organisation.

What are institutes doing to encourage diversity in class?

First to increase diversity, top MBA institutes are trying to accommodate students from various countries and from various cultures. Gender diversity is also being focused on. The diversity factor is also being accelerated by introducing students from different backgrounds such as media, military, not-for profit entrepreneurship as well as others fields such as fine arts.

The most basic level of diversity that MBA officers are looking for is students from a wide range of places and backgrounds. According to Gaurav Agarwal, Associate Director (Admission) at Hult International Business School, when HULT is looking for students it looks for diversity of thoughts, unique backgrounds such as athletes, diversity in terms of ethnicity, citizenship, age and country of origin.

He admits being an admission officer is an intense job – managing the mix is not an easy task. 

After my graduation from Hult, I can say I have a home in nearly 64 countries – Select My Tutor, my start-up requires me to. With our company slowly expanding into various countries, I require the help of my classmates from diverse backgrounds and countries to understand and localize the product based on the country we expand into. 

As Stephen R Covey says, “Strength lies in the differences, not in the similarities”

Contributing Blogger Jacob Parackal is a 2011 alumnus of Hult International Business School. He has more than 4+ years in strategic consulting for top MNC companies. He is currently the co-founder of  ‘Select My Tutor’ and is running its operations. 

The conventional, theoretical class room education is losing favor in the current turbulent economic environment. Students with strong theoretical knowledge but without any experience of how to apply that knowledge in the field are being considered to be ‘no good’ by corporations.

Corporations today no longer have the time to make a candidate fit for tackling real life challenges by putting them through a time consuming training process. The most advanced and contemporary business institutes have already changed their course structure to one oriented to ‘practical learning’ rather than theoretical class room learning, in response to the changing environment.

‘LEAP’ is a leap by Hult in that direction.

LEAP stands for Learn, Experience and Action Projects. The essence of this style of teaching is not to undermine the importance of abstract theory, but to incorporate the practical applications of those theories. In fact, when students learn the practical application of their theoretical knowledge, they get a much better understanding of the subject being taught in the class room.

As part of LEAP, the learning process is divided into two steps.

First you get strong theoretical knowledge from one of the best faculties in the world and thereafter you undergo learning through the case study methods to give you a sense of how these theories and principles are being applied in practice. This involves interactive learning through thought-provoking discussions with students from around the world. At this stage, Hult provides you with the theory, tools, terminology, and trends to give you a broad perspective on business.  

To enrich the LEAP process, insights and real world experience of the faculties is a vital element.

To develop the analytical ability of the students to translate the theory into practice, the students participate in panel discussions with industry experts and are provided exclusive networking opportunities and company visits.

The students receive first hand advice from visionary speakers such as Arianna Huffington on the choices and mistakes they have made in analyzing and responding to real life situations. Hult’s Global Rotation gives you the opportunity to experience international business practices up-close.

The last step is definitely the Action Projects. As a business student, you can participate in a real-world project for a major company or an Action Project created in partnership with your current employer, which is a ‘win-win’ for you and your company.

Advised by a mentor, small teams of students compete with one another to develop a business strategy and present their recommendations to that company. Hult’s Action Projects are designed to emphasize innovation and growth and focus on the paramount challenge facing any company: identifying new pathways for growth.

As stated LEAP is a leap towards the most modern way of developing business leaders and has been recognised by industry experts all over the world. The practical approach of teaching is available in many business schools, but the difference is that few of them are as diversified and contemporary as LEAP.

As a Student who went through the LEAP way of learning at Hult, with professors with real world experience i.e. doing business or in corporate world, I learned to tackle real life problems.

The reason you will see many start-ups emerging from businesses schools that incorporate the LEAP model in some manner is because when their Founding teams get out of business school, they are all set to tackle real world problems. 

While starting up selectmytutor.co.uk, I had come across quite a few obstacles on a daily basis. But having worked with 3M during my action project helped me negotiate the winding entrepreneurial path and even get introduced to some key contacts that helped me get the necessary seed funding for starting up my venture.

The old school teaching methods need to give way to the new technology based learning such as the LEAP method.

MBA graduates need to be industry ready and meet the requirement of the companies they are hired in. In this environment of austerity, corporates are preferring employees who need the least training and are the right fit for their team.

Contributing Blogger Jacob Parackal is a 2011 alumnus of Hult International Business School. He has more than 4+ years in strategic consulting for top MNC companies. He is currently the co-founder of  ‘Select My Tutor’ and is running its operations. 

Cover image courtesy Fastcompany.com