Jamshedpur, Jan. 16: One may call it the French connection for management students. Soon the French government would award scholarships to select Indian students to pursue higher studies in business and human resource management in their country.

This has become possible after XLRI decided to sign an MoU with the University of Lille, France, on January 26 at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. The tie-up would see both the organisations enter into a strategic partnership in the presence of French President Nicholas Sarkozy and his girlfriend Carla Bruni.

“It is for the first time that a nation’s head would be present at the signing ceremony,” said P. Venugopal, the dean of academics at XLRI, who would be accompanying Fr. E. Abraham, the director of the institute, to Delhi.

With the presence of the high profile guests notwithstanding, the event would be significant for both the management institutes in another way.

“According to the agreement, faculty members from the University of Lille would visit our overseas extension centre in Dubai and Singapore to conduct classes,” said Fr. Abraham. It is for the first time that faculties from a foreign university would teach at XLRI’s overseas centres.

Prior to this, only XLRI faculty members conducted classes in Dubai and Singapore.

Apart from the overseas faculty exchange programme, the MoU would also see the French government award special scholarships to Indian students. To be jointly decided by XLRI and its French counterpart, the scholarship would be open to non-XLRI students as well.

“The details on how many students would be taken in and what the selection criteria would be, will be decided on later. But all can send their applications,” said Venugopal.

The student and faculty exchange programme will also be an integral part of the partnership. “Exchange programme and joint study programmes have always remained the crux of such tie-ups and it would be no different this time either,” said Abraham, who would also be signing another decree with the Asian Institute of Manila in the first week of February.

“We are looking forward to several such tie-ups with other global B-schools too,” said Abraham.

Coming up next would be a tie-up with the Aston University in the US. XLRI is also gearing up for its annual tech fest Ensemble, scheduled to take place on January 25 and 26. The XLRI-IIMC meet is also slated for this month.