The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) is one of India’s finest business schools. With over five decades of teaching Foreign Trade Management, this institute has gone a long way in developing some of the brightest minds in this niche area.

History of the institution

This institute was established in 1963 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India with the sole objective of professionalizing India’s foreign trade management and enhancing exports by developing human resources, and generating, analysing and sharing data, besides also conducting research. The Master of Business Administration in International Business (MBA-IB) is the institutes flagship program, which makes it the only institute among India’s top 10 B-schools to offer such a program. In 2002, it was conferred the status of Deemed University. In 2006, a branch of this institute was opened at Kolkata.

In 2017, the IIFT Kakinada was launched. However, initially, it was to function out of rented premises until it received the approval of the UGC. The then Government of Andhra Pradesh had allotted it a plot of 25 acres to construct the institute on similar lines of IIFT Delhi and Kolkata. It is expected to be ready in three years.

In recent years, it has also been conducting autonomous entrance examinations pan-India.

List of full-time MBA programs offered

IIFT offers one full-time MBA program:

• MBA in International Business

Admission Process

Candidates with a three-year’ Bachelor’s degree from a recognized university in any discipline may apply. Candidates who are yet to appear for their final year bachelor’s degree examination and are awaiting their results, are also eligible to apply.

Candidates wanting to apply for this program must appear for a test set by the IIFT. Foreign candidates will have to appear for the GMAT examination. Based on the candidate’s performance in the test, they are invited to appear for the following rounds comprising Essay Writing, Group Discussion and Personal Interview. Candidates shortlisted for a seat on this program will be based on their GDPI performance.

For any further information, students may contact:

The Registrar

IIFT Bhawan, B-21, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi – 110 016

Tel: + 91 – 11 – 2696 6165

Board Numbers: + 91 – 11 – 2696 5124 ; + 91 – 11 – 2696 5051

Fax: + 91 – 11 – 2685 3956

Website: www.iift.edu

Tuition fees

The tuition fees for the MBA-IB full-time course is as follows:

General category               : ₹ 16,25,000

SC/ST/PWD:                       : ₹ 8,40,000

Foreign National/NRI        : US$60,000 + ₹ 55,000 for other expenses

The info given above is the latest, to confirm click this link:  https://iiftadmissions.net.in/tfee.aspx

Foreign students

Foreign students and NRI candidates are admitted to this course based on their performance in the GMAT and interview that follows. Shortlisted candidates will then undergo a personal interview at the IIFT campus. Candidates will have to make their own travel arrangements to be present for this interview. In case they cannot, they will be interviewed through Skype.

Admission Cycle

For details about the admission cycle of the MBA-IB course for foreign students, download the brochure from the institute’s portal.

Selection criteria and Admission process

Aspirants to this course should first fill out the application form, either online or offline. Candidates should check the eligibility criteria before applying for the exam. Foreign candidates must be sure they have a valid GMAT score.

All students can choose to pay the application fee either by:

• • Online Payment Gateway
  • Demand Draft

Admit Card for the written exam: Students taking the entrance exam can download their admit cards from IIFT’s official website. They should fill in their login details to download the admit card. The hall ticket will bear details regarding the exam and test centres.

Appearing for the exam: Candidates who fill the application forms completely and correctly may appear for the IIFT exam. The paper involves solving 123 multiple choice questions from four sections–English Comprehension, General Knowledge & Awareness, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Analysis.

The results of the exam will be declared within a month of the date of the exam. Candidates can check their results on IIFT’s official website by entering their roll number and date of birth. For further reference, it is best to take a printout of the scorecard.

Interview rounds: Those candidates who clear the written exam will enter the next qualifying rounds which include Essay Writing, Group Discussion and Personal Interview. Candidates will be asked to write an essay on a current event or on a business matter. For a 300-word article, 20 minutes will be allotted.

Those who clear this round will move on to the next round, Group Discussion. Here, candidates are divided into groups of 10-12 students and given a topic to speak on. In this round, candidates are tested for their quick thinking, initiative, communication skills and presentation of ideas. The last round is the Personal Interview round where a panel of members ask the candidate a few questions. Based on his performance here and in all the preceding rounds, he will be selected.

Facilities provided

Location: The campus of this institute is seven acres large and has three large water bodies to add beauty and style. It is conveniently located and has good cafes and food stalls nearby and easy access to different forms of public transport.

Infrastructure: Each classroom is equipped with computers and LCD projectors that help in the learning process and with conducting presentations. All classrooms are Wi-Fi enabled, air-conditioned, have projectors and audio-visual teaching aids.

Sports facilities: Due to a space constraint, sports activities are limited, despite which students participate in cricket, volleyball, football, badminton and table tennis competitions on the campus. They also participate in Cricket Mania and other sporting activities.

Accommodation:  There are two hostels on the campus and one outside. Another hostel is about 10 minutes away from the main campus, which is the boys’ hostel. Boys are allotted accommodation in the hostel based on their academic performance.

Apart from the three hostels, there is also a common room for students to sit and discuss projects and anything else. They can also chill out here and rejuvenate themselves by either watching TV or playing table tennis. It is barely five minutes from the campus and is guarded by 24×7 security and is located in verdant surroundings.

For girl students, there is a separate wing. Each hostel room is equipped with a computer and 2 MBPS Internet connectivity. The Institute also accommodates participants of the Management Development Programmes.

All the hostels have basic amenities such as water purifiers, recreation and common room, mess, TV, laundry services, security and surveillance systems, etc.

Library facilities: The library at IIFT is a very large and impressive one, in fact it is one of the largest in the developing world with about 84,000 volumes and subscriptions to 800 journals with online cataloguing. It is invaluable for research scholars and students for its number and variety of publications.

Students also have access to databases such as the NIC, CMIE, India Trades, World Bank Indicators, etc. It has also set up the WTO Resource Centre in the Library to focus entirely on WTO issues. This library is the only one of its kind in India. Apart from the library, there is also a reading room, open 24×7, situated in the hostel.

The library also has 12 Bloomberg terminals which provide a vast range of Global Economic data and live changes for stocks Markets, Company Reports, Sector analysis, and future trends. This is extremely helpful for research scholars.

Canteen facilities: On the campus, there is a24x7 food canteen and a Nescafe outlet. The mess is fully equipped to accommodate 100 students at a time. Despite this, a lot of students like to eat at the various stalls and eateries that dot the roads outside the campus. They are suited to all kinds of budgets and suit all kinds of palates and pockets.

Computer facilities: IIFT has three state-of-the-art Computer Centres with a LAN comprising IBM Blade Centre, HP Servers and 300 Pentium Core 2 Duo / i7 nodes and wired & wireless access to the network available on the campus. This centre aims to provide99% uptime such as ensuring server uptime, facilitating hardware, storage management, streamlining operations, network operations and simplifying end-user support.

The software applications include Solaris, Novell Netware, Windows 2003 / 2007 , SPSS, Oracle, Visual Basic and Java. Its other facilities are 24-hour Internet access via a 14 MBPS leased line, access to national and international databases, in-house publishing facilities, LCD/Plasma Screen Projection Systems, etc.

Co-curricular Activities: The annual management fest celebrated at IIFT is called QUO Vadis. Students from leading business schools attend this fest. The institute plays host to several clubs that conduct a series of events in Management fields such as Marketing, Banking and Finance. The highlight of the event is usually what’s called the ‘Star Night’. Popular stars such as Benny Dayal, singers like Lucky Ali and bands such as Astitv have entertained students here.

Yet another popular event is the Ultimate Warriors League (UWL) organized with a lot of zest. Here, students are divided into groups to form several cricket teams. In this event, auctions are held for players and through actual bidding, teams are formed, a la IPL.

Quality of faculty team

The backbone of the IIFT is its 46 full-time faculty across domains. Faculty includes Chevening Scholars, HBS alumni, etc. This gives one an idea of the level of education the staff here has. Their average teaching experience is 19 years, along with industry experience of eight years.  

Students find the faculty here highly approachable and up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in their fields. They also find that their professors have a unique teaching methodology which makes learning concepts and theory easy. They also possess cutting edge knowledge of their subject.

The faculty of IIFT have collectively published more than 50 books and several research articles, rendering it the No. 2 institute for research. Corporate houses such as IMRB and CBC sponsor a few courses here.

Tie-ups with other foreign institutions

The Institute is a member of the following International organizations:

• Academy of International Business (AIB)
• Association of Management Development Institutes in South Asia (AMDISA)
• International Association of Trade Training Organization (IATTO)
• The Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)
• The European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD)

Student and Faculty Exchange Program: IIFT has a nicely-structured exchange program, made easy by tie-ups with some of the best business institutions in the world. According to this program, every year, about 15%-20% students from the first year batch take courses for a trimester in European universities. These partner institutions send 20 students to spend time in IIFT during different trimesters.

This exchange program also helps faculty members to access expertise and resources from our associated institutions, thus benefitting them tremendously.

Some of these partner institutions are the University of Bocconi, Italy; Singapore Management University; Strasbourg Graduate School of Management, France; Nyenrode – Holland and Saarland – Germany, etc.

Placement facility provided

IIFT has the reputation of giving its students 100% placements. Not only this, IIFT Delhi and Kolkata are among the first schools in the country to wrap up the summer and final placements. Placements offered to students are always enviable. Common placement facilities are available for both campuses.  

The highest salary packages is ₹1 crore and more, bagged by three students every year. The average salary in 2018 has gone up to ₹19.23 lakhs per annum.

The verdict

One of India’s premier institutes for International Business, IIFT offers students a great atmosphere to study and develop their individual personalities. It’s very common for industry experts to come to the campus here to share their success stories or insights with the students.

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