With a Rs 72 lakh gap in highest international salaries and a Rs 8.3 lakh gap in average domestic salaries received by PGPX and PGP students, the PGPX course has outclassed the PGP by a huge margin. The gap in placements for the two courses also drills holes in IIM A’s claim that the PGP is a world-class MBA.
While IIM A presents both its two-year full-time course (PGP) and one-year full-time course (PGPX) as MBAs, the ground reality becomes clear when one looks at placements received by graduates of these two courses this year at IIM A.
In keeping with its status as the No.1 MBA in Asia (Financial Times Ranking), and maintaining the trend seen over the past decade, graduates of IIM A’s MBA (One Year Full Time Post Graduate Programme for Executives – PGPX) have landed the highest salaries at the institute once again.
Rs. 1.38 crore is the highest international salary, Rs 54.55 Lakh the highest domestic salary and Rs 28.76 lakh the average domestic salary commanded by PGPX grads this year. Graduates of the two-year pre-experience Masters in Business Management* (PGP) by contrast received a Rs 73.38 lakh highest international salary, Rs 53 lakh highest domestic salary, and Rs 20.47 lakh average salary.
Unlike PGP at IIMs, which is accredited globally as an Masters in Business Management course (a course for freshers), PGPX meets stringent work-experience requirements for an MBA course. But IIM A presents not just the PGPX, but the PGP course as an MBA too.
Talking to Bloomberg in 2013, Ashish Nanda, Director, IIM A, who himself graduated with a PGP from IIM A in 1983, said, “Annually, about 380 students enter the two-year PGP program, (which) is like an American MBA and is for students who are coming directly from undergraduate programs or have one to two years of work experience.”
The reality is quite different. US B-Schools with two-year MBA programmes typically have a Class with an average work-experience of 2.5-5 years, less than those quoted by one-year MBA programmes, but not significantly so. Harvard University, where Nanda served as a professor prior to joining IIM A, quotes 5 years of work experience for its two-year MBA Class of 2016.
Recent reports in the media have pointed out that IIM A’s PGPs earn less than half what Harvard MBAs earn. On the other hand, PGPX grads beat Harvard MBAs on ROI earlier this year.
When one looks at one of the most respected international rankings brought out by Financial Times (FT) the PGP doesn’t rank, infact, as a pre-experience course, it doesn’t even qualify for the ranking. The PGPX leads here too and is ranked in the MBA Ranking, while PGP is ranked in the MBM/ MIM Ranking.
These hard to ignore realities make IIM A’s claims of the PGP being an MBA equivalent course shaky.
IIM Ahmedabad’s (IIM A) placement report has been audited by CRISIL under the Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS). The final placements were conducted in February-March 2015.
The report provides total compensation package in the form of maximum earning potential (MEP) component which is IIM A’s nomenclature for Cost to Company (CTC). The MEP component is the sum total guaranteed cash component, maximum possible-linked variable pay and all other components of salary that are a part of the offer, including long-term compensation such as provident fund and other perks, according to IPRS.
More than 115 firms made offers in the placement process in 2015.
Both the average international and domestic MEP for PGPX rose from $144,040 (Rs 95.81 lakh) last year to $147,119 (Rs 97.86 lakh) this year, and from Rs 26.74 lakh last year to Rs 28.76 lakh this year, respectively.
ALSO READ: IIM A’s PGPX Ranked No. 2 MBA in the World for Career Progression: Financial Times 2015 MBA Ranking
PGPX students were recruited in senior profiles such as Assistant Vice President, General Manager & Associate Director. Top recruiters for PGPX grads this year included, Accenture, ZS Associates, Zensar, Ericsson, Amazon, Deloitte, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Oracle. New recruiters on campus for PGPX included Tata Capital, Vodafone, Snapdeal, BMGI Consulting & Cummins.
This year IIM A also gave a ‘placement holiday’ to two PGPX students who wanted to started their own ventures. These students will be free to participate in the placements next year if they so like.
For PGP, the institute saw its highest international MEP go down from $192,581 (Rs 1.28 crore) last year to $110,284 (Rs 73.38 lakh) during 2015 final placements. On the other hand, the highest domestic MEP rose by about 30 per cent from Rs 41 lakh last year to Rs 53 lakh this year. However, both the average international and domestic MEP for PGP rose from $75,005 (Rs 49 lakh) last year to $79,738 (Rs 53 lakh) this year, and Rs 18.81 lakh last year to Rs 20.47 lakh this year, respectively.
ALSO READ: Rs 1.1 Cr International, Rs 56 Lakh Domestic: the ‘High’ at IIM A PGPX 2014
The consulting sector continued to rule the roost at the final placements for PGP, followed by banking, finance and insurance services (BFSI). In terms of number of offers, Accenture Strategy emerged as the top recruiter across all clusters having selected 21 students from campus. The other top recruiters included McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain & Company, YES Bank, Goldman Sachs, Hindustan Unilever, Star TV India, Bharti Airtel, Aditya Birla Group, Future Group, Amazon and Samsung, among others.
ALSO READ: Like Nestle, B-Schools Are Businesses Too: Jago Grahak Jago
The PGP programme saw around 361 students seeking placements whereas 11 students opted out of placements to start their own ventures in areas like adventure tourism, data analytics, e-commerce, food processing, among others.
*Two-year PGP courses at IIMs such as IIM C and IIM L are accredited as MBMs by Association of MBAs, UK since they admit students with minimal work-experience. As per global accreditation norms, MBA graduates must have a minimum of 3 years of work experience – a criterion that only IIMs’ One Year Full Time MBA courses meet. While IIM A has not received AMBA accreditation, if it were to apply, only its One Year MBA would stand accredited as an MBA. Read more.
View Comments
I am a PGPX graduate from IIMA. I don't understand the comparison between 2 programs one trying to outclass the other. Its like apples and oranges.
I found the article to be highly amateur. This is not how you build a brand.
Really disappointed.
Hi Raj, I too am a one year grad from one of the iims. I don't see anything wrong in comparing programmes for the benefit of future students.
You say PGP and PGPX are as different as apples and oranges - but is IIM A making that clear to students and recruiters? No - they instead position both as MBAs. Infact, all IIMs are abdicating their responsibility and going with the 'chalta hai, chalne do' attitude that typifies are government institutions. As management schools teaching ethics, and proper marketing, the right positioning and marketing of PGPX and PGP should be a priority. If only IIM A would clarify to all and sundry the very different nature of these programmes - PGP an MBM for pre-experience guys and PGPX as an MBA for post-experience guys, everyone would be clear on realities!
I say there should be more such honest articles so students aren't taken for a ride! Read this article on the doublespeak around pgpx and pgp - http://www.oneyearmba.co.in/like-nestle-b-schools-are-businesses-too-jago-grahak-jago-mislabeling-misleading-claims-wrong-practices-advertising-lies-wrong-claims-mba-college-consumer-help/
Hi,
I am a Doctorate in Management from IIBM
in one point of view if we analyze PGP Vs PGPX, there is a huge differentiate according to freshers and a experienced person, so even if both courses are vice versa to each other but the presentation is vast different.
Concern is that need a clear understanding to student for no depression for this comparison.
Fees for one year program and eligibility criteria?
A grossly misleading article.
The initial reaction to the heading was LOL ! But later on it turned to dismay because of such poor reporting and comparison. There are so many flaws in the article that its painful to point them all. A few being:
1) PGPX is specially designed for working executives, Avg age is 34 years and avg work ex is 10 yrs (avg international workex 3yrs). It is for mid to high level management positions. There is no comparison with PGP which is for entry level management positions with avg work ex 20 months and avg age 24 yrs
As BOTH are for management positions hence calling both of them a program of management is not wrong... The only thing wrong is to compare them.
2) How can one compare avg salaries of youngsters (aged 24) at entry level management positions with Experienced professionals (avg age 34) who are already in mid-to senior positions before joining the MBA program. Its not even comparing apple to oranges... may be apples and besan ka laddo (on a lighter note!).
3) The best colleges in the world including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Sloan accept students with less work ex (they DO NOT refuse applications from freshers and accept people with exceptional profiles with less then 2 yrs work-ex). Those also get MBA and no one points fingures at them.
4) Comparing avg placements of 400 students (with approx 50% reservation) with avg placement of 85 students (no reservation) is also illogical. Commenting on an avg international salary which has only 3 data points (making it statistically insignificant) is also absurd.
5) The students and recruiters both know the difference between the two MBAs. Students with workex less than 4 yrs aim at PGP and professionals with >5 yrs work ex aim at PGPX. Recruiters come to PGP for entry level positions and come to PGPX for mid to senior level positions. NO FARCE there!
Finally you can go through the placement reports of both PGP and PGPX. Search for top 10 Banks, Consults and Marketing firms in the WORLD. You will find at least 8 from each category coming to PGP program for recruitment. Hardly 2-3 from each come for PGPX. (though this may be due to the high workex of ppl in different sectors other than these for PGPX)
If you have heard of a term called PPP then use that when you compare Indian salaries with US salaries and you will find tht they are at par with Harvard and likes.
Sources:
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/programmes/pgpx/programme/current-batch-profile.html
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/programmes/pgpx/programme/all-batch-comparative-stats.html
http://www.businesstoday.in/management/career/iim-a-offers-better-return-on-investment-than-stanford-harvard/story/206130.html
Really???????????