There many kinds of management programs in India. World-wide the consensus is that it is more important where you studied than the program itself because education is mostly about learning, environment, experience, relationships, world-views and not so much the name of the degree.
- AICTE approved PGDM programs. These are autonomous programs approved by AICTE. There are less than 300 such institutes in India and many of the good ones have chosen to add the next variety rather than meet requirements of AICTE for larger student strength. When such a program has a equivalence certificate to MBA from the Association of Indian University ( AIU) it is the best of programs and accreditation.
- University MBA programs offered by state/government universities outside their legal geographic territory ( the area of operation specified by the state) . These are actually distance programs but disguised as regular programs and classes are held for two years. This is the most common type of MBA offered for students who are searching nationally for a program. Does the AIMA PGDM come in this category? I think so, except that it is offered by AIMA and is approved by AICTE as a distance program
- Same as above except that it is offered by a deemed university, many of whom are themselves running the universities based on a supreme court stay order, even as the government is convinced that these are not centers of excellence to be offered the status of universities. (University under sec3 of UGC act is all that is mentioned. How is the common man to know what this is?
- PGDM program offered independently by the institute which has no government approval of any kind.
- MBA programs offered by state/government university though departments in the university or through affiliated colleges within the authorized area of operation.
Many institutes these days also offer type 2 and 4 as a combination. Purely by the spirit of the laws of the land type 1 and type 5 are legal. Some others are just legal ( as a distance course), and many are not recognized at all. I wonder if the education minister is aware of the structure of the management education market. The recent notification by AICTE does not clarify things to the confused student not does it help improve the quality of programs in any way. Yes there are many problems with the industry including profiteering, however, in a free market, eventually competition will take care of many issues. Having said that, we should also be aware that the customers are unaware and a confused lot to be able to make logical decisions when bombarded with information and having constraints of both time and money. When the market is uninformed or unsuspecting, can we still call it a free market? that is another question altogether.
Best of luck to potential management students. There are many options and choice is a responsibility not similar to choosing from the many flavors of ice-cream!
When I see the the videos of the NPTEL program or faculty from engineering colleges attending workshops at one of the IITs, I wonder why we have institutions of national importance in management which are state sponsored islands of quality in a ocean of muck.
Having been teaching a new subject in the university system like 'Retailing' - Have tried many times to attend a program in one of the IIM's . It costs more than 3 months of my salary and neither the government that sponsors these institutions nor the governing boards ( consisting of Industry leaders who want to hire good management graduates and ensure that students going to the SME sector do not get similar quality education for obvious reasons!) have thought about how to make quality management education easily accessible to teachers in lower rung institutes. There are less than 5 private management institute managements in India who will sponsor a teacher paying full fee to attend a program at a IIM.
Apart from a infrequent FDP there are no linkages between the great institutions and the aspiring ordinary . Faculty are very keen about doing consulting work, which is great, however what about the moral responsibility of creating a larger community of good management teachers? One reason these state sponsored high flyers dont want to get their hands dirty could be that those who are not in these top institutions are dumb. It must be true too, if one goes by qualifications and my own lack of ability to comprehend many of what to me are difficult concepts. I dont however, think that that is good reason.
It would be easy to say that my students cannot understand, the difficult part of a teachers job is to accept the student however she/he is and try to add as much as possible to their understanding. This brings up another question...Does the syllabus for all management institutes have to be based on the very best, knowing that the abilities of students, teachers are different and their aspirations / job profiles are all so different. About that some other time.
Sadly for me, I want this blog to be about marketing and retail, however I have ended up writing mostly about the management education space. Hopefully, I will return to my knitting soon. Do write in......come on....your comments will enrich me and other readers of this blog.
Whether you find this cynical or 'bang on'...whatever do thump out your views for me and others to see
