The concept of International Exchange Programme at IIM Kozhikode is rather different from the one at other comparable institutions of higher learning. IIM Kozhikode placed a great emphasis on faculty interaction between partner institutions, made formally possible by faculty members spending a term or more at the partner institutions at terms mutually agreed upon. Faculty interaction, as envisaged at IIM Kozhikode, occurs at a broad interface which encompasses collaborative research, teaching, post-doctoral work, thesis guidance for each other's students, and access to information and data on a scale and of a quality not usually observed. Such a close, synergy-building exchange between partner institutions is bound to have a pervasive effect also on student perceptions, laying a strong foundation for student exchanges.
International Students Exchange was initiated at IIM Kozhikode in the autumn of 2004, with a few students from the Institute enrolling and receiving a warm welcome at the European School of Management ESCP-EAP in Paris and at the European Business School in Frankfurt. The students are aware that during their stay, they are expected to imbibe the very spirit of the host institutions, and to be totally open to the culture and the philosophy of those places of higher learning. So, it is by no means intended to be a programme merely concerned with in-class learning. Besides learning about management practices in various countries, they are also expected to develop personal friendships and networks, both with students and faculty members, which will be long-lasting and of benefit to the larger community. The international students admitted to IIM Kozhikode, in turn, have unlimited access to everything that the academic community at IIMK and the society at large in Calicut, a relaxed and friendly city, have to offer. Besides, they also experience the unique natural endowment of Kerala, the subject of countless tourist narratives and articles in magazines such as the National Geographic and known by the popular nickname 'God's Own Country'.
Of the various agreements, the agreement signed with Victoria University concerns, besides faculty exchange, doctoral students rather than MBA students. This agreement is the first of its kind in India for Victoria University of Wellington. The scope of the agreement is getting further enhanced to cover Faculty Development Programmes meant for training the management teachers from colleges and smaller management institutes. More foreign institutions are now considering exchange agreements with IIM Kozhikode and these are at various stages of processing. Another way IIM Kozhikode promotes exchanges with institutions abroad is by maintaining memberships in such bodies as the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, which facilitates interactions between the Canadian and the Indian educational institutions. It is also a member of the Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools (AAPBS), which plays a leadership role among the management institutions in the Asia-Pacific Region.
When the new agreements that are in various stages of processing are completed, the number of students covered under exchange programmes may go up. Further, with the current level of interest shown by several other prospective partners in different parts of the world, the international exchanges programme of the Institute is destined to grow rapidly in the next few years.
