The learning in a one-year full time MBA is not compromised as compared with the learning gained in the two-year programme offered at B-schools in India. The course merely skips the nonessentials for a class with work experience.

For instance, the programme does not delve deep into theory and focuses instead on practical knowledge useful for a manager. To give an example, while the Market Research course in the two-year programme might elaborate on how to design a questionnaire, the one-year course would take you through processes to analyse the results from such a study.

This focus is in line with the kind of role a candidate from a one-year full time MBA would step into after graduation. Unlike candidates from the two-year programme, who typically join companies as management trainees, candidates from the one-year course are placed in leadership positions such as VP, GM or CEO. In these roles, a candidate is expected to strategize rather than execute.

This stress on practical learning is typical of an MBA offered internationally. An internship is not a part of the programme because candidates do not need to be familiarized with work environments.

The two-year PGPDM/PGP covers theory in detail as the course caters to candidates without work experience who benefit from grounding in the basics. The two years actually translate into 17 months of study because of intervening vacations and internships. In addition, while the workload for the first year is heavy, the second year is comparatively light. Students are given a lot of spare time in between classes to organize management festivals, etc. These festivals offer a sort of surrogate corporate environment where students can put management theory to practice.

The one-year course runs a tight ship and is, in fact, very strenuous for most candidates. The learning is not 50 per cent of a two-year course as some would assume. Lets see for instance the classroom hours at a One year MBA at IIMs-

• Classroom hours in a typical two-year full time MBA worldwide – 680 hrs
• Classroom hours in a typical two-year programme at IIMs – 950 hrs
• Classroom hours in a typical one-year full time MBA at IIMs – 800 hrs

So a student of a one-year full time MBA at IIMs will essentially undertake more hours of classroom study as compared to a student pursuing a typical two-year MBA at an international school. Many B-schools in the USA are now re-evaluating the need for the additional year in the MBA as offered by them.

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The question whether the number of classroom hours scheduled for both the one- and two-year courses is adequate or more than what is needed and symptomatic of the undue emphasis that the Indian educational system places on ‘how much you learn’ rather than ‘how well you learn it’ is something I will take up in greater depth in another article.

Thanks to their prior work experience, the candidates of the one-year course can connect class discussions to their own experiences in corporate life. This helps them question, debate and finally absorb new management concepts in a thorough manner.

The learning in the course gains considerably from a class full of people who have seen corporate life inside out. The peer learning the course offers is amazing. A student can count on learning from an expert even outside the classroom.

This gives rise to interesting situations. For instance, you may have a faculty teaching accounting to a student practicing as a CA! This might seem awkward at first, but is not, and this kind of real-life corporate experience is expected of a MBA class worldwide.

The kind of experience that a candidate of the one-year full time MBA brings to a classroom has been appreciated by Prof. DVR Sheshadri of IIM B. In a newsletter dated Oct ’07 he says, “…my experience has been that the uptake of ideas and concepts is much faster and more permanent vis-à-vis participants of regular MBA 2-year programs. I must qualify this observation with the disclaimer that this may be subject-specific.” He adds “…each case gets discussed from an inter-disciplinary perspective…the challenge of conducting a case discussion for this forum can be daunting, since among participants, it is not uncommon to find a country marketing manager of a large FMCG company, or bank, etc.” You can read the complete article athttp://tinyurl.com/profdvr

A smaller class size in the one year course vis-à-vis the approx 300 candidates on an average in a batch of the two-year PGDM/PGP is a boon and ensures a one-on-one engagement with the faculty and hence deeper learning.

The faculty that teaches the one-year course and the two-year course at B-schools in India is the same and includes visiting faculty from international B-schools.

The courses offered by the two programmes are similar too. Given the high level of responsibility candidates of the one-year course shoulder on graduation, some of the B-schools have introduced additional courses in ethics and corporate responsibility for the students of the one-year full time MBA.

For instance, at the one-year full time MBA (EPGP) at IIM Indore, students undergo a compulsory course in spirituality. A monk from Ramakrishna Mission Ashram, Belur Math, teaches a course that handpicks learning from the Bhagavad Gita that is relevant to a corporate warrior. It teaches future leaders how to be compassionate and follow ‘dharma’ both in the workplace and in their personal sphere.

This key addition to the one-year course balances the capitalist origins of the MBA and its focus on creating value for shareholders by imbuing within students the value of sticking to the straight and narrow path.

Click here to read the original article in Business Standard

People harbour a myth regarding the quality of students accepted to the one-year full-time MBA. They imagine that these candidates are unable to qualify for admission to international B-schools or the two-year course.There is a belief that the CAT-based two-year course at B-schools is the toughest to enroll for. Students and media ingrain this belief by pointing out for instance that 2,14,000 CAT applicants vie for 3,000 seats for the two-year post graduate programme (PGP) at IIMs.

They don’t mention that in addition, roughly 2,00,000 seats are available to these applicants. In all, 185 institutes, 13 of them IIMs, accept the CAT score for PGP and other courses, such as PGP-HR, PGP-Agribusiness, PGP-IT and Ph.D. Hundreds of other institutes accept CAT scores unofficially.

The story gets better. The applicants can apply to any number of IIMs. So the application pool at each IIM is largely replicated but claimed as exclusive by each institute. Of the 2,14,000 test takers in 2012, approx 2,04,345 (almost the entire lot of those taking the test) applied to the two-year PGP at IIM L and approx 2,00,000 to this course at IIM C.

When students and the media talk about the PGP at IIMs as being the toughest course to get into, they calculate the ratio of the seats to the applicants and speak of a very low acceptance rate. For example, they would talk of the 210 seats at IIM C’s PGP and the approx 2,00,000 applicants to the course and then wow everyone with news of a 0.10 per cent acceptance rate.

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By this logic, the acceptance rate for the one-year full time MBA (PGPEX) at IIM C (ratio of 45 seats to the 2,70,000 GMAT test takers – we are taking the figure of the entire lot of test takers because about that many would apply if they were allowed to apply to any number of institutes without charges) in 2012 was ridiculously low at 0.01 cent!

GMAT, which is accepted at most global B-schools, allows you to send your scores without a charge to only five B-schools. To report your score to an additional institute, you pay Rs 1,500. Each school charges a separate application fee which is as high as Rs 3,500 at IIM Indore and more than Rs 13,000 at Harvard. This prevents candidates from applying indiscriminately.

If you were to see the intake at the prestigious Harvard as some kind of benchmark, you find it has an 11 per cent acceptance rate.

Acceptance rates, even if calculated accurately, are a poor indicator of quality of   these two courses. The true indicator is the quality of applicants.

The profile of students accepted to the one-year full time MBA in B-schools in India is incredible and in line with that of students at top international B-schools. On an average, the candidates have five years of work experience, which includes international work experience. The average GMAT score hovers around 710 (similar to the average score at Harvard and Wharton).

Past candidates at the one-year full time MBA (EPGP) at IIM Indore included a PGI-educated doctor who led 10,000 troops as an army Major, a nuclear scientist at the Dept. of Atomic Energy, a Zonal Sales Head at an MNC, IITians and managers from Fortune 500 companies.

The admission criteria are holistic and, while incredibly difficult, don’t lay undue emphasis on just one marker of brilliance – test scores. International schools have long insisted on well-rounded candidates. Stanford has refused admission to 800/800 GMAT test scorers over the years because they fell short on other criteria, and the GMAT score range at Harvard is 570-790. B-schools in India are following the same approach.

The admission process spans shortlisting on the basis of the GMAT score, in-depth mission statements, essays capturing past work experience and case studies that check a candidate’s ability to provide solutions to real-world business problems. Thereafter, interviews are conducted by the institute’s faculty across the globe.

Importantly, there is no GMAT score cutoff for the shortlisting and the admissions committee considers everything that hints at a potential leader – from a candidate’s extracurricular interests to the stray dogs she saved working for an NGO. The alumni of the One year MBA in India are proud to say that despite scoring a 650 in GMAT, you can gain admission.

The lower emphasis on percentiles isn’t a sign of a substandard admission process, but of a progressive and world-class approach to finding well-rounded managerial talent.

Regarding the misconception that candidates at the one-year course failed to make it to international B-schools or crack the CAT, let me give my own example. I wasn’t enaumored by an MBA when I graduated from college. I was passionate about advertising and after six years of work I decided to pursue an MBA to complement my rise into a managerial role at work.

As a highly awarded brand management and advertising professional with stints on international advertising award juries, I had a strong profile for global schools. But consider this – even in 2009, when I was applying to B-schools, a one-year MBA at INSEAD cost approximately Rs 50 lakh and a two-year MBA at Harvard cost Rs 1 crore, including living expenses! The one-year full time MBA (EPGP) at IIM Indore, at Rs 15 lakh, presented better value. This is one of the major reasons why candidates choose Indian B-schools over global B-schools.

Click Here to read the original article in Business Standard

Click to read the next article in the series – Rigour of a Global 2-year MBA in one year