Structural layout of the MBA colleges in India

It was when the economic reforms of the country were undertaken in early 1990s that ushered in the MNC culture, that the need for well educated managerial personnel was felt. This provided the impetus for the setting up of the MBA colleges in India. This could not have been possible for the government to set up these colleges on such a big scale and especially when it was encouraging the private sector to come forward on many other fronts. What emerged was a set up of three types of the MBA colleges.

The first type is of those colleges which are set up by the Universities under the aegis of the UGC. These are the only colleges which can offer the ‘Masters’ degree in management. Hence, ideally, so far as the nomenclature is concerned it is these institutions which can offer the MBA degree. The students who aim to get a degree prefer to seek MBA admissions in these colleges.

The second types of colleges are the ones which are run by the private sector and are not under the control of the Universities. These are run directly by the private players and their functioning is streamlined as per the norms of AICTE. These are not allowed to call their award a ‘Master’s Degree’. Therefore, these offer the ‘Diplomas’.

The third type of MBA College is the one that is run by the private player without any sort of control. These are the ones which are not allowed to offer the degrees or diplomas and use the different other names.

Having elaborated on the different types of MBA colleges in India, it is important to note that people usually get secure careers by opting for the first two only. Seeking MBA admissions in the third category of the colleges in considered a risky investment. For the government or semi-government job positions, it is the post-grads from either of the first two institutes which are eligible to apply for the job vacancies. The UGC regularly brings out the list of institutes which are not recognized by it and cautions the candidates from seeking admissions in these ones. It is interesting to note that the top MBA colleges in India, of the IIM fame, offer the diplomas only.

For the candidates willing to do MBA, the first choice is naturally the top MBA colleges that are reputed. However, intense competition for those institutes might force many of them to seek admissions in many other institutes. Which one is the top MBA College and which one is not, is dependent on many criteria. The most simplistic benchmark to judge the same is to find out how much salaries are commanded by the post-grads from these institutes. The other important criteria could be the extent of placements, the faculty, the infrastructure and even the teaching methodology. Besides seeking the admissions in the regular MBA colleges, the candidates can also opt for pursuing the MBA with distance education learning.