The degree for the undergraduate programmes at ISBF is awarded by University of London (UOL), one of the oldest universities in the UK and among the most prestigious in the world. This is because all these programmes are offered under UOL’s aegis - all ISBF students are full UOL students, and are therefore invited, upon graduating, to receive their degrees at the UOL Graduation Ceremony in London.
Since these programmes receive all academic direction from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), LSE’s name is also mentioned on an ISBF student’s UOL degree, further enhancing its prestige and value around the world. Click here to see a copy of the degree.

There is no difference between the degree that an ISBF student receives and that obtained by a student pursuing the same programme in London with UOL. This is because the University of London is, today, a global university, with an ecosystem that ensures that the underlying education being received on one programme by students in different parts of the world is exactly the same. This principle is enshrined in the UOL’s statutes - ‘Candidates granted degrees and other awards shall have attained the same academic standard irrespective of mode or place of study or examination.’ (Statute 66(2)).
On the other hand, an ISBF student’s degree does look different from the one received by an LSE student; however, since an ISBF student follows the same curriculum and assessments as LSE students in London, and since their UOL degree bears LSE’s name as the examining body, this makes their education and their degree equivalent in standard to that of an LSE student in London.

ISBF students receive a BSc degree award for their undergraduate programmes because LSE, the academic director of the programmes at ISBF, recognises Economics and related subjects like Finance and Management as ‘Sciences’ and awards a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree for them.
Subjects like Economics lie on the verge of the Arts and the Sciences, hence different institutions, often even within the same country, take different views on whether to offer a BSc or a Bachelor of Arts degree for them. For example, in India, University of Delhi awards a BA for Economics, while University of Calcutta awards BSc degrees for the subject. Similarly, in the UK, University of Cambridge awards a BA while LSE awards a BSc.
Typically, one should look at the actual curriculum one is studying on a programme in these subjects, rather than relying on the nomenclature of the award (BSc or BA). However, it may be said with some degree of general truth that BSc degree programmes are more quantitative and ‘scientific’ than BA ones. While this doesn’t, by itself, make BSc programmes better (or worse) than BA ones, the current era of digitisation does call for quantitative skills even among social scientists, and to this extent, a BSc may score over a BA, albeit this should be subject to a deeper evaluation of the curriculum.

The UOL degree is not recognised by UGC because the degree awarding body - UOL - is situated outside India and therefore does not fall under the regulatory purview of UGC. Of the dozens of countries in which these programmes are offered around the world, India is among the only ones where they exist in a regulatory vacuum. If a student wishes to obtain a UGC recognised qualification, say in order to pursue a career in government services, it is advisable to simultaneously pursue the BA / BCom programme from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) or some other open university. This can be done via the distance learning mode at very little additional cost or effort, with complete operational and teaching support from ISBF.

University of London, the degree awarding body for ISBF students, is one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in the world. Besides, the UOL degree carries the name of the London School of Economics (LSE), which is among the top 10 institutions in the world for the disciplines offered at ISBF. All this makes this degree, and an ISBF student’s education, widely recognised and hugely valued all over the world. This is the reason that ISBF students hold a significant edge over their peers when it comes to any kind of international opportunity - right from a 2nd year transfer to a top foreign college, to a Master’s at a prestigious university abroad and an overseas job after graduating.

ISBF students receive an LSE education and a UOL degree, which are very well understood all over the world by recruiters as well as other higher education institutions. In fact, since they represent the gold standard in higher education, they provide a peerless platform for students who wish to work or study abroad at any stage after graduation.
In India, the programmes at ISBF currently do not enjoy equivalence from the Association of Indian Universities (AIU); however, many of its prestigious constituent members - such as University of Delhi, University of Calcutta, University of Punjab and many others, have granted equivalence individually to the UOL-LSE programmes at ISBF, on account of their high quality and pedigree.
This is why ISBF students have been able to go on to the best postgraduate institutions in the country, such as Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), Indian School of Business (ISB), Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI), Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and Delhi School of Economics (DSE).
With regard to corporate sector jobs too, private corporations value highly the skills developed and pedigree associated with pursuing a world-class LSE education, and leading companies therefore recruit ISBF students year after year. Click here to know more about ISBF students’ career prospects.

In reputed and credible international higher education ranking systems like those of Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) or Times Higher Education (THE), ranks are typically assigned to universities, and not to the colleges affiliated to such universities. For example, University of Oxford is ranked, not St. John’s or Magdalen College, and University of Delhi is ranked, not St. Stephen’s College or Lady Shri Ram College for Women, yet because the university concerned is the umbrella body and the programmes offered by its affiliated colleges are typically the same, the colleges enjoy the university’s rankings in effect.
Similarly, since ISBF is affiliated to University of London, and through it with the London School of Economics (LSE), it is the rankings of these institutions, and LSE in particular (being the academic director for the programmes), that apply to the education offered at ISBF. Based on the QS 2023 Rankings by Subject, LSE is ranked 7th in the world for Accounting and Finance, 7th for Economics and Econometrics and 11th for Business and Management. As ISBF offers programmes only in these subjects, all ISBF students pursue a global top 10 undergraduate education.
This, of course, leaves the question of ISBF’s ranking as a college within the LSE-UOL ecosystem. Of more than 70 such colleges from Uruguay to Japan, ISBF is recognised by LSE as one of its five featured teaching Institutions, or colleges, in the world, on account of the excellent outcomes achieved by its students on these programmes year after year.
Besides this, ISBF has also won a number of awards for its excellence - the Dewang Mehta National Education Award for Best Academic Input (Syllabus) in Finance, in both 2015 and 2016, and the ASSOCHAM India Award for Best Institute for Providing Global Exposure in 2018.

To put it simply, ISBF is a college in the University of London Programmes ecosystem, which also includes the London School of Economics (LSE). ISBF has been affiliated to UOL ever since its inception in 2006. It rose to the erstwhile highest level of recognition - Affiliate Centre - as early as 2009, signifying the higher quality standards in terms of infrastructure, teaching support, faculty quality and several other processes and systems, and has maintained this status through more than a decade of stringent quality checks and audits.
As a result of this relationship, all ISBF students are full students of UOL - they pay a fee directly to UOL, receive UOL student ID cards, have access to all virtual and physical UOL learning resources, are invited to participate in the UOL Graduation Ceremony in London and enjoy UOL alumni status and benefits for life. Perhaps most importantly, this is why all ISBF graduates receive the globally recognised and valued UOL degree, which also carries LSE’s name on it.

As a Member College of UOL, LSE provides all academic direction for the Economics, Management, Finance and Social Sciences (EMFSS) programmes offered under the aegis of University of London. These are the only programmes offered and taught by ISBF, so the collaboration with LSE runs very deep.
LSE faculty members design the programmes, write and update the curriculum based on the latest research and, very importantly, set and grade the final, or summative, assessments for all courses/subjects taught on the UOL Programmes. This makes the curriculum and assessments followed by ISBF students identical to those followed by LSE in London.
ISBF also enjoys several visits from LSE faculty members every year, including Visiting Lectureship by the Associate Academic Director for the UOL Programmes at LSE. All this ensures that ISBF students obtain one of the world’s leading undergraduate educations in these subject areas.

No, ISBF is a brick-and-mortar college and offers all its programmes through the full-time, classroom-based mode of learning. None of our programmes are distance learning programmes. Distance learning refers to studying at home, by oneself, without formal teaching or classes, enrolling only with the university (for the programme) but not with any college, as one is not looking for any teaching.
On the other hand, all programmes at ISBF are taught by ISBF’s esteemed faculty members, in classes conducted on the ISBF campus, with a formal year-long teaching plan, formative assessments and several co-curricular, extra-curricular and other learning opportunities, none of which happens on a distance learning programme.
In fact, on the UOL Programmes, Recognised Teaching Centres or colleges such as ISBF provide an alternative, since the UOL Programmes are also offered via the distance learning mode. See the ‘Ways to Study’ menu on the UOL website to understand this better. This practice is quite common in India too - for instance, University of Delhi offers BCom and BA (Hons) English programmes through the School of Open Learning (distance mode) and also through colleges such as Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Hindu College and others, none of which can be considered distance learning programmes.

Since the curriculum followed by ISBF students is entirely written and regularly updated by LSE faculty members, who are some of the leading researchers of their fields, it truly represents some of the most relevant and cutting-edge content for undergraduate study. This automatically leads to a strong overlap with the syllabi / curriculum of professional qualifications in related areas, such as CFA and ACCA.
The curriculum for the BSc (Hons) Economics & Finance programme at ISBF overlaps quite significantly with that of CFA, while students of the BSc (Hons) Accounting & Finance receive exemptions from 8 out of 13 examinations required to qualify as an ACCA, making it possible for them to become fully qualified before they graduate and at less than half the cost. These students also enjoy exemptions for several other professional accounting qualifications, such as CIMA, ICAEW, ISCA and CPA Australia.

It is important to note that the UOL-LSE programmes at ISBF draw contributions from two sets of faculty members - those of LSE, who provide all academic direction except the teaching, and those of ISBF, who teach the programmes. LSE’s faculty members, who write the programmes, the regulations and the curricula, and who set and grade all final assessments, are among the leading minds in their subject areas in the world, and they bring this expertise to bear richly on what ISBF students study.
ISBF’s esteemed faculty members, who are responsible for teaching these world-class programmes, themselves hail from prestigious institutions such as the London School of Economics (LSE), University of Cambridge, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, University College London (UCL), Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (BGSE), University of Delhi (colleges like St Stephen's College and Shri Ram College of Commerce), Jawaharlal Nehru University, IIM and IIT. Along with this high academic pedigree and a wealth of teaching experience, they bring to the table extensive industry exposure across the globe, and a unique commitment to the profession of teaching. All faculty recruitments at ISBF have to adhere to UOL guidelines and are overseen by both LSE and UOL.
As part of ISBF’s international and deliberate pedagogy, several faculty members have undergone, or are pursuing, eminent international postgraduate learning and teaching qualifications, such as ‘Teaching in the Digital Age (TIDA)’ by LSE, and the Postgraduate Certificate for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education from University of London (UOL). ISBF’s distinguished faculty group counts among its ranks a University of London Worldwide Recognised Tutor, and an LSE faculty member as Visiting Lecturer for Statistics, Econometrics and Business Analytics.

There are several ways in which ISBF students are exposed to LSE faculty members. The first, and the most important, is via curriculum design and the setting and grading of final assessments, which are done entirely by LSE faculty members.
Second, in addition to the classroom teaching at ISBF, students also utilise LSE's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), a rich content repository curated and maintained by their faculty members. Aside from videos, digitised study material and learning activities, this also houses course-wise Discussion Forums which are moderated by LSE faculty members, and enables students to access the UOL Online Library, one of the richest in the world.
Third, as one of LSE's leading Teaching Institutions in the world, ISBF also enjoys several visits from LSE faculty members in normal years. Moreover, the Associate Academic Director for the UOL Programmes at LSE is also a visiting lecturer at ISBF, teaching Statistics to all 1st year students, Econometrics to several 2nd year students and Business Analytics to some 3rd year students. All this gives ISBF students plenty of exposure to LSE faculty members over the three years of the undergraduate programme.

The pedagogy followed at ISBF is a very deliberate one, based on years of training by LSE’s faculty members, the pursuit of world-class learning and teaching qualifications (such as the PG Cert offered by UOL itself) by several ISBF faculty members, and the collective, codified learnings of ISBF’s own teaching over a decade and a half.
It is derived from LSE’s motto - rerum cognoscere causas - or, to understand the causes of things. To do this requires an in-depth understanding of what one studies, so that one can then apply this knowledge to solve real world problems. This is why ISBF lays great emphasis on a spirit of deep enquiry - The Power of Why, since this is deemed fundamental to all learning. And this is also why there is practically no room for rote learning at any stage.
There is also no room for procrastinated or last-minute learning, or cramming, because this can not build lasting knowledge to solve society’s problems, and is a relatively useless, unemployable skill from a real world perspective. Instead, all learners are treated as adults, yet provided concerted ‘scaffolding’ to enable a smooth transition to the LSE way of consistent learning in first year. While this support persists across all three years, it deliberately changes form in order to facilitate students’ development into independent learners by the time they graduate.
The pedagogy is also punctuated by several innovative learning and teaching practices, including multidisciplinary classes, flipped classrooms, interdisciplinary and capstone projects and a liberal use of technology, including videos, podcasts, polling software and several other learning aids. It is this well-rounded and peerless pedagogy that has enabled ISBF to rise to become one of LSE’s leading Teaching Institutions or colleges in the world, and also helped it overcome the teaching-learning challenges posed by the pandemic in 2020.

The total fee charged by ISBF is higher than that of many Indian colleges because ISBF offers world-class, international programmes in collaboration with institutions like University of London (UOL) and the London School of Economics (LSE). As a result, the tuition fee paid by an ISBF student comprises the tuition fees of both ISBF - the college and UOL - the university. In fact, the UOL tuition fee makes up about 43% of the total tuition fees on the programme, as it accounts for programme features such as LSE’s academic direction and access to UOL’s Online Library and other learning resources, which are unique to ISBF.
ISBF’s own tuition fee is actually not much higher than that of most Indian colleges, but the overall tuition fee (i.e. after adding in the UOL component) includes a premium that one is paying for being able to study a global top 10 ranked programme here in India. Yet, the total programme cost is only one-fourth of what one would spend to obtain the same education and degree abroad, so it represents, in fact, a huge cost saving for students and their families.

Scholarships up to 25% of the ISBF Tuition Fee are offered by ISBF, and these continue for all three years of study if the scholar maintains the stipulated academic standards. Click here for details on all these scholarships. Students may also obtain funding via education loans. To facilitate this, ISBF has a tie-up with Credenc, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) (click here for more details), though students may, of course, equally approach other banks and NBFCs.

ISBF boasts of a state-of-the-art campus located in the heart of the historic capital city of Delhi. The campus is fully Wi-Fi enabled and guarded 24x7, and is equipped with classrooms having audio-visual equipment, a well-stocked library, games and recreation areas, a rooftop cafeteria and terrace, and several breakaway spaces to give students an environment conducive to learning and all-round development. Students have easy access to nearby sports, medical and other facilities, and the hostel is a stone’s throw away. Click here for more details.

The ISBF campus is located in a very central, safe and student-friendly part of New Delhi. It is well-connected by several modes of public transport, with three metro stations at walking distance, the nearest one being less than 5 minutes away. The ISBF hostel, is also only a short walk away from campus, and is also located in a very safe, residential area. Both the campus and the hostel are guarded 24x7 and equipped with CCTV surveillance.
ISBF’s central location ensures that as one steps out of campus, one can discover and explore all sorts of facilities within walking distance, including banks, medical facilities, public libraries, entertainment options, eateries, cafes, cultural attractions and markets. In fact, this is why our students refer to a large region around ISBF as their ‘Extended Campus, and use the campus as a base to explore the vibrant capital city of Delhi. Click here to see the Extended Campus map.

Students’ holistic development is a key focus area for ISBF. To this end, several co-curricular opportunities and activities are made available for students to hone their skills, broaden their intellectual horizons and apply their knowledge to real world situations.
A key opportunity is distinguished public lectures by eminent persons such as Dr. Pronab Sen, former Chief Statistician of India, Dr. Ashok Lahiri, member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission, Deep Kalra, Founder and CEO of makemytrip.com, Nikhil Arora, Vice President of GoDaddy India in the last year alone, aside from dignitaries like Dr. Manmohan Singh, former Vice-Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson of the Indian Council for Research on International Economics Relations, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Member of Parliament and former central government minister and Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO of OYO Rooms and an alumnus of ISBF, in past years.
There are also several opportunities for research, an Incubation Centre for budding entrepreneurs, training workshops for software like Microsoft Excel, R, Python and STATA, extensive placement-related training, workshops for financial modelling, critical thinking and public policy, industry visits, interdisciplinary and capstone projects, boot camps for Finance students at Bombay Stock Exchange, abridged courses and much more.

Extra-curricular activities are the lifeblood of the student experience at ISBF, and there is a separate fund provided by college only for this purpose. These activities not only allow students to take a break from curricular work and express themselves, but also enable them to hone essential personality skills and traits.
ISBF currently has twelve student societies, covering interests such as dance, music, quizzing, debating, Model United Nations, sports, events, media, fine arts, entrepreneurship, investing, women empowerment and social work. All of these are run entirely by students, and led by the popularly elected Core Council. They collectively organise at least two annual inter-college events - the Model United Nations Conference and the annual inter-college cultural festival, Xenia. Click here to know more about campus life and student activities.

Yes, absolutely. Some indoor sports facilities are available at ISBF’s centrally located campus, while for all other sports, students utilise one of the top sporting complexes of the city, which is located a stone’s throw away from campus. Training for college teams is funded by college, but students also use these facilities for recreational purposes.
ISBF also now accepts admissions under the ECA/CCA/Sports Category, and is committed to providing sportspersons coming through this category with opportunities to pursue and hone their craft. With the high-quality teaching support available at ISBF, students can work out a study plan which leaves enough time for pursuing professional sports should they wish to.