The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are seeking clearance from the Union Government to allow them to award degree certificates instead of diplomas for their one-year full-time management programs that admit only professionals with work experience.

The one-year programs at the IIMs are considered equivalent to the MBA, figuring in several international rankings.

However, since the students are awarded only a diploma and not the degree on completion of the program, they face difficulties in pursuing further studies or jobs abroad in the absence of the MBA degree certificate.

• The IIMs offer one-year full-time programs under various names. The Post Graduate Program in Management for Executives (PGPX) at IIM Ahmedabad, the Executive Post Graduate Program in Management (EPGP) at IIM Bangalore and IIM Indore, Post Graduate Programme for Executives (PGPEX) at IIM Calcutta and the International Programme in Management for Executives (IPMX) at IIM Lucknow.
• The one-year programs have, for long, been waging a perception battle, more often than not, being mistaken for part-time executive MBA programs, mainly on account of the “executive” tag put by the IIMs to differentiate them from the 2-year full-time programs.
• Even the Indian government, under the mistaken impression, had clubbed these programs with the other part-time programs, refusing to grant them exemption from taxes unlike the 2-year programs aimed at fresh graduates.

The IIM Act 2017 that came into force on January 31, 2018, granted a huge amount of autonomy to the IIMs, including the freedom to grant MBA degrees. At least three of the 20 IIMs, namely, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta and IIM Ahmedabad have changed over to giving degree certificates to graduates of the 2-year Post-Graduate Program (PGP) from the diplomas they were earlier awarded.

While 14 members of IIM Bangalore’s Board of Directors have approved the proposal, IIM Ahmedabad was to present it at the Board meeting on April 16.

However, in the case of one-year programs, the criteria specified under the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act stood in the way. Under UGC rules that a Master’s degree in management has to be of a minimum two years duration.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry had issued an order on March 8, 2018, that the IIMs will have to seek the government’s permission for awarding a degree that is “not in accordance with the UGC notification”.

This was the explanation the IIM Directors received from Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar in December 2018. The Ministry is understood to have softened its stand since then leaving the door open for further discussions, according to a report in the Economic Times.

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The newspaper said while 14 members of IIM Bangalore’s Board of Directors have approved the proposal, IIM Ahmedabad was to present it at the Board meeting on April 16. IIM Calcutta was already in touch with the Ministry. The talks were stated to be in an advanced stage.

At the IIMB director board meeting, the HRD ministry representative is understood to have pointed out that the UGC rules did not allow awarding degrees for one-year programs. There was no official word from the IIM about the meeting or the proposal.  Director G Raghuram did not respond to ET queries on the issue.

Meanwhile, IIMA director Errol D’Souza told the newspaper that the matter will be taken up at the Board meeting. He expected a favourable response from the Ministry. The IIM has been pursuing the issue with the government since last year.

IIMC acting director and dean (New Initiatives & External Relations) Prashant Mishra said the Board has approved degree status for the two-year and the doctoral programs. The issue of one year program has been taken up with the HRD ministry and a decision will be taken after the necessary clearance.(Image Source:wikipedia.org)

The question popped up out of the blue on my screen a couple of days back while I was browsing Quora.

Since I am watching ‘Zindagi Gulzaar Hai’ (Life is beautiful) on Netflix right now, somehow it sprang up as a potential response to this question.

Except, just like in the Pakistani show, where the life of the protagonists often fails to live up to the title of the show, life after IIM, is often more complex.

There are those who don’t get roles they want. Those who find they are anything but managers after the ‘MBA’ having landed Management Trainee profiles instead of roles imagined by most thanks to the ‘Get ready for top Management’ glow surrounding MBA courses in India. Those who regret not pursuing their passions. But lets ignore all these for a moment since such issues exist in every sphere of life.

Lets focus for a bit on the most successful lot, because I think that was the real question – how great is life for those who get what they want out of an IIM degree?

And here is where I was reminded about ‘Humorously Yours’ on TVF ( You should watch it if you haven’t).

At one point, Vipul Goyal, who is a struggling stand-up comedian, is mystified about why he is still surrounded by a thousand tensions despite finally securing a solo stand-up show – his life long dream.

Kanan Gill tells him that he would understand his situation better if he played video games. He elucidates – when you cross a level in the video game, you get a bigger gun, but that doesn’t mean the level is any easier to conquer – with the bigger gun, comes a bigger and stronger enemy since – you have leveled up”.

So even if your expectations from IIMs/ IIT/ OFQ (other fancy qualifications) are matched by reality, you still have to contend with bigger challenges that will come your way since you have leveled up. The silver lining is that they come with a number of positives.

Here are some of them:

Bigger salary with bigger EMIs – Where the education loan ends, the IIM grad worthy car loan starts. Where the car loan ends, the IIM grad worthy home loan starts. Where loans start, freedoms end.

Bigger life, but even bigger expectations – Yes you can afford a simple 1 BHK or 2 BHK on rent. But that’s not what you imagined right? Everyone has dreams of living in a villa with an A4 parked in garage. On to that Startup and funding then.

Higher Salary, Higher targets and lesser time – everything comes at a price, higher salary included. Too many of us define success by how wealthy we get. But it can also be defined by how many experiences you gather or how much time you get for self-development and family. These aspects however will usually suffer for the initial years.

More responsibilities but more office politics too – Climb the ladder, but watch out for the ‘snakes’ which didn’t care much for you till you were walking below their radar

Don’t get me wrong. This is not a contrarian response for the sake of sounding different. There is a whole world of positives good education can bring you and IIMs are no different. But IIMs are not a magic bullet which will set you for life.

Many people who go to IIMs know this. For others knowing there is a flip side to the best case scenario might be useful. Because your neighborhood uncle and aunty won’t talk about their IIM son or daughter who is busy all the time.

Browse to 4 Min 20 seconds in the video below for Kanan’s ‘gyan’ on leveling up.

About the Author – Shikhar Mohan has 15 years of corporate and startup experience. Before starting up OneYearMBA.co.in & TwoYearMBA.com, Shikhar served as Chief Marketing Officer (VP) at CommonFloor (acquired by Quickr) and Brand Head at HCL Infosystems. Shikhar writes on education in publications such as Business Standard, Smartinvestor, Indian Management, Rediff.com & is a frequent speaker at prominent B-Schools. In another lifetime, before he donned a suit (post an MBA from IIM I), he was an advertising copywriter at Mudra, FCB, Grey Worldwide and won over 10 international & national advertising awards in New York, Australia, Singapore. Connect with him on Linkedin @in.linkedin.com/in/shikharmohan

The Indian Business School (ISB) has stolen a march over the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) capturing the 27^th rank. IIM Ahmedabad’s PGPX slipped five spots from the previous year to 29 while IIM Bangalore’s EPGP was placed 49 in the ranking of the best MBA courses in the world. 

However, the news reports totally miss out on the fact that it is the 1-Year Full Time MBA programs aimed at candidates with work experience that earned the IIMs a place in the rankings and not their 2-year Post Graduate Programs (PGP) that takes in fresh graduates.

The media relies on the B-Schools to disseminate accurate information about such events, but the IIMs that built up their reputation on the basis of the PGP programs are in no hurry to dispel the impression that their 2 Year course is numero uno, despite the 1-year MBA coming up to international standards. 

The world over, the Master of Business Administration (MBA) is considered a post-graduate degree for the business professional who qualifies for the program only after spending the required number of years in a professional capacity.

Fresh graduates with no work experience have the option of going for a Master in Management (MIM) degree. Part-time programs meant for working professionals (executives), invariably have the moniker ‘Executive’.

These programs target those who are already in the workforce but have neither the time nor resources to join a full time program. These programs have considerably lesser weightage than the full time ones when it comes to hiring.

For the same reason, FT brings out three other rankings – a Masters in Management Ranking where the IIMs 2-Year PGP courses qualify, an Executive MBA Ranking where part-time courses are covered, and a B-School ranking that ranks the best B-Schools on cumulative scores awarded in the previous three rankings.

PGP Not an MBA

However, in India, a strange situation is witnessed where the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) tend to push their 2-year Post Graduate Program (PGP) as an MBA.

‘Executive’ Mill Stone

At the same time, the 1-year full time MBA programs that have received accreditation from AMBA (Association of MBA), an internationally recognised body, are given the short shrift with the word ‘Executive’ being added to differentiate them from the PGP programs. It proves to be quite a mill stone around the neck of the “real MBA” graduates with the lack of awareness about its value among the recruiters and ranking agencies due to wrong labelling.

For example, IIM Bangalore (IIMB) calls its 1-year MBA program as Executive Post Graduate Programme (EPGP), IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) has the Post Graduate Management Programme for Executives (PGPX) and IIM Calcutta, the PGPEX (Post Graduate Programme for Executives). IIM Lucknow, however, clearly specifies the AMBA accreditation for its International Programme in Management for Executives (IPMX) as an MBA program.

It is also to be noted that AMBA does not give accreditation to the institute, but only for the programs. Thus, a full time program for those with work experience will be classified as MBA and those for freshers with no professional experience will be MIM.

Where Things Go Wrong

The IIMs, with the exception of a few, tend to gloss over this fact, highlighting the FT MBA Ranking without specifying the program that has earned the merit. In the same vein, they gloss over specifying which programme has been awarded MBA accreditation by AMBA, UK.

The net result is that the applicants are somehow lulled into believing that the PGP programs are the ‘real MBA’ having been in existence decades before the 1-year programs came on the scene.

Quartz got it wrong…

Even international ranking agencies like Eduniversal put the IIMs’ 1-year programs in the ‘Executive’ category, divesting them of their due weightage. All this in a situation where the standard of the 1-year program, employment and salaries match international programs.

IIMA’s PGPX, for example, is at number two position in the ‘Weighted salary’ and at number three position in the ‘Career progress rank’ in the FT Global MBA Ranking 2017.

…but thankfully updated the story later with the right facts and credited the 1 Year MBA courses

In such a situation, it is no wonder that the media houses also get the story wrong. Headline after headline gave the impression that the institutes have got the honours and the story itself gives no indication of the program that has been ranked.

Apart from IIMA that has slipped to the 29th rank, five spots lower than the previous year,  FT lists the 1-year MBA programs of Indian Business School (ISB) at 27, IIMB at 49 while IIMC made its debut in the rankings at 95th spot.

In a refreshing change, IIM B clearly credited the 1 Year MBA (EPGP) for wining a Global Top 50 MBA Rank

Except for ISB and IIMB, the other institutes have not bothered to clarify that the ranking is for the 1-year program leading to a wrong impression that the 2-year PGP programs are being handed the crown. IIMB had missed specifying that the EPGP has won this ranking last year, but did an excellent job of clarifying each detail in its announcement this year. 

Clarity provided by IIM B resulted in accurate reporting by the TOI

ISB, a much younger and nimble business school in the private sector, is able to steal a march over the IIMs with its correctly designated Post Graduate Programme in Management, despite the fact that students of IIMs’ 1 Year MBA courses command better salaries during placements – graduates of IIM A’s PGPX course have averaged salaries around the Rs 29-31 lakh mark as opposed to the Rs 18-20 lakh received by ISB graduates over the past few years. 

Questions are being raised whether students have developed a ‘sense of entitlement’ that runs contrary to a free market economy. Govindarajan Ethiraj, Founder-Editor of Boom, an independent digital journalism initiative, feels that this ‘strange sense of entitlement’ runs contrary to the nature and behaviour of the real world outside.

In an article in Boom, he points out that several placement offers that got cancelled or postponed were from firms whose business models had come under severe pressure dependent as they were on free-flowing capital than revenues. Any student of management should realize the gravity of the situation with senior employees of such firms looking for the exit. In fact, such firms may not even last till the next year’s placement season.

Questions are being raised whether students have developed a ‘sense of entitlement’ that runs contrary to a free market economy. Govindarajan Ethiraj, Founder-Editor of Boom, an independent digital journalism initiative, feels that this ‘strange sense of entitlement’ runs contrary to the nature and behaviour of the real world outside.

Then comes the question of demand and supply. While India produces 1.5 million engineers every year, barely 7% are employable, according to the India head of Dassault Systems, Chandan Chaudhury. That suggests the job market is severely skewed towards a few and between the jobs you want and those that are on offer, there might a huge gap.

While the GDP growth recorded a staggering 7.9% in the last quarter of 2015-16, it has not led to business leaders come out with big investment decisions.

In fact, job creation is slowing down and it looks less encouraging for manufacturing. As to the argument that the nature of jobs are shifting, Ethiraj agrees but says “to believe that the nature of jobs are shifting to companies whose only reason for existence is a series of wild bets by VC firms is to ignore the very textbooks that are part of your course. Yes, innovation drives change, but not so fast.”

Regarding sanctity of agreement, he says his previous job was in a large media company that also made films. At a senior management meeting a heated discussion took place about a well-known actor who tore up a three-film contract because the first film did resoundingly well at the box office. The actor now wanted a higher revenue share from the next two films and the contract re-written. For all the legal resources that had been poured into this and other, similar, contracts, it turned out that there was little that could be done.

In yet another case, a well-known television anchor pulled out after signing a contract that had taken almost three months to prepare, mutually. “All he did was to write a sorry letter. We were upset and thought we should enforce the contract legally. That feeling, thankfully, lasted only 15 minutes and we realised quickly that it was best to move on,” says Ethiraj.

Thus, even if the companies that withdrew their offer letters are completely in the wrong, those recruited must get used to it. In a similar situation, those who complain now, when placed in a senior managerial position, would be doing the same thing, “particularly when the business cycles go against you and you have shareholders to answer to.”

Ethiraj spoke to Larsen & Toubro and asked them for their official position on why L&T Infotech pulled its offer letters. The spokesperson’s explanation was that they had issued only “Offers of Intent to prospective employees and not Letters of Appointment.” It was explicitly stated in the terms of offer.

The company stated that all stakeholders were clearly aware of the terms of the letter and applicants who cleared an industry standard test duly received appointment letters to commence their training.

Ethiraj says even if it sounds like a dodge, it should be remembered that. L&T is a blue-chip construction-to-finance major in existence from 1938, with revenues of around $15 billion as opposed to perceived market capitalisation.

“The company wants to be in business, arguably a little longer than the flip-as-you-go entrepreneur (no offense to them) with a one-billion-in-one-year-consumer-acquisition-via-newspaper-advertisements business plan,” he adds.

“To me, the fear that we want to benefit from the upsides of a socialist economy while being protected from the downsides of a free market economy is frightening, to say the least,” he says.

However, the students say that the companies come to the campuses because they want the best talent available in the country. The students have a plenty of options to choose from and it is expected that the company that is vying for the first few spots in the placement process will honour their commitments.

If the offer is contractually binding, then the companies ought to be held accountable. Placement systems in colleges often do not permit students to “hold” multiple offers. They usually need to indicate their commitment to one, sign out and wait, they add. (Image Courtesy : www.business-standard.com)