MUMBAI, March 15 -- Students from the Dubai campus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad were in Spain studying supply chain management when war broke out in West Asia, forcing the institute to rethink how it would run the programme. Rather than shift classes online, the institute moved the entire batch to its Ahmedabad campus, arguing that a fully virtual format would undermine the learning experience.

The 35 students are part of IIM Ahmedabad's Dubai-based executive management programme for mid-career professionals. Sending them back to Dubai or switching to online instruction would have disrupted the one-year course, prompting the institute's leadership to relocate the cohort to India until the conflict subsides.

"We ...