Are you doing an MBA or a PGDM ?

Management institutes offering fancy courses and one-year MBAs are now under the scanner.

The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which also regulates management education in the country, has asked all states to caution private B-schools against fooling students by calling their full-time regular management programme an MBA.

According to its revised regulations, every two-year full-time general management programme, which is not affiliated to any university, will have to be referred to as post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM). Along with it, B-schools have to mention the sector/branch in brackets.

For instance, programmes focusing on finance will be called PGDM (finance). AICTE will not approve PG management courses that are of less than 12-months duration.

Any management programme with duration between one and two years will be treated as a certificate course.

This means that no private B-school can offer an MBA or a PGDM if the course is for more than one year and less than two years. "Candidates completing these certificate programmes will be awarded post-graduate certificate in management.

If such a programme is sector or function-specific, the parenthesis will denote the focus like in the case of PGDM," AICTE adviser (management and technical bureau) K Madhu Murthy has said in a note to all states and AICTE regional offices.

Further regulating executive management programmes, AICTE has said that such programmes will have to be for a minimum of 15 months.

Source Times of India