We had pointed out last year that the brand value of some of the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) offering the one-year full time MBA program was getting eroded due to the word ‘Executive’ used by them in an effort to differentiate it from the more common two-year program creating confusion not only for prospective students, but also for ranking agencies and even the media.

We had also stated that it was cause for concern as some of these courses are, in fact, much ahead of those offered by private institutes but lose out by being put in the wrong category.

For the second year in succession, Eduniversal, a global ranking and rating agency specializing in higher education, in its 2017 rankings, has put all Indian One Year Full Time MBA programs, except Indian School of Business’ One Year MBA (PGP), in the incorrect category of Executive MBA courses.

“The MBA is defined as a career development generalist program for those who have significant post-graduation work experience on which the learning process should explicitly build,” says AMBA that accredits MBA courses worldwide.

Eduniversal Best Masters Ranking 2017 of Executive MBA & MBA part time in Central Asia has placed the Executive Post Graduate Program in Management (EPGP) at IIM Bangalore in the first rank followed by One Year Post-Graduate Program in Management for Executives (PGPX) of IIM Ahmedabad in the second rank. The Executive MBA IIT Bombay-Washington University ranked fourth, however, is a bonafide executive MBA program at the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay – students attend this on a part-time basis visiting the campus occasionally. 

Further down the list, the Executive Post-Graduate Program in Management (EPGP) at IIM Indore ranked 11, Executive MBA full time one year at Xavier University Bhubaneswar at 12 and EPGP at IIM Kozhikode at 13 are also placed in the wrong category of Executive Programs rankings.

The MBA Full-Time Rankings in Central Asia puts the Post Graduate Program in Management (PGP) at IIM Bangalore in the first rank followed by PGP at IIM Ahmedabad in the second and the MBA-PGDM Post Graduate Program in management at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in the 3^rd rank.

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One Year MBA program at Indian B-Schools is accredited as Full-Time MBAs by Association of MBAs, UK (AMBA). These courses go under various names such as Post Graduate Program for Executives (PGPX) and Executive Post Graduate Program in Management (EPGP). 

Executive MBA courses are in fact, part-time courses pursued by working professionals. One year MBA programs are not for working professionals – these are fully residential courses.

ISB’s One Year MBA is called Post-Graduate Program (PGP) and does not carry the ‘executive’ moniker. It has been ranked correctly in the ranking of ‘Full-time MBA’ courses.

The 2-year management courses being run by the IIMs and several other management institutes in India that cater mainly to fresh graduates with practically no work experience have been ranked in the wrong slot of Full-time MBA courses, since they are positioned as MBAs by Indian B-Schools, despite failing to meet global standards for the course.

These pre-experience programs are accredited as Masters in Business Management (MBMs) or programs for freshers, by the Association of MBAs, UK (AMBA). So for instance IIM Indore’s 2 Year PGP is accredited as a MBB while its 1 Year Full Time EPGP programme is accredited as a full time MBA by AMBA, UK.

Internationally, MBA programs, one-year or two-year, are for those with work experience of a few years, looking to further their career prospects in higher echelons of management. These are full-time courses.

“The MBA is defined as a career development generalist program for those who have significant post-graduation work experience on which the learning process should explicitly build,” says AMBA that accredits MBA courses worldwide.

“Students are expected to have a minimum of three years appropriate and relevant postgraduate work experience upon entry and the student body as a whole should average at least five years of such experience,” it adds.

One Year MBA courses in India, in line with these standards, require 3-5 years of work experience.

Internationally, B-Schools also have programs for those students who would want to do an MBA part time for various reasons. These are titled as Executive MBA programs with far less stringent requirements than the regular courses and are typically pursued by seasoned professionals with 15-30 years work-experience to gain knowledge, not to switch streams or get placed.

The course duration is often shorter, may include distance learning, lesser hours of classes, maybe during the weekends and the like. Since the requirements and rigours are far lesser and the participants already in senior management roles, the ‘jump’ in the career of the candidates tends to be lower than those in full-time programs.

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The confusion persists in the media too. Way back in 2013, Business Today separated the ranking of one year MBA courses from the two year PGP courses but erred in bundling executive MBA with one-year full-time MBA.

The Hindu, on January 8, 2016, fell victim to the same mistake in an article titled ‘What they will teach you at Harvard Mumbai’ comparing IIM Ahmedabad’s PGPX  program and Harvard Business School’s Senior Executives Leadership Program (SELPI).

The newspaper on January 22, 2016, published a clarification from IIMA that said the IIMA PGPX program was a one-year fully residential program for students with substantial work experience with approximately 600 contact sessions. In contrast, the HBS SELPI is an executive education offering that proposes four modules (two off-campus modules of 10 and 11 days and two on-campus modules of 5 and 10 days each) with approximately 140 contact sessions.

Further, entry into IIMA’s PGPX program required a formal application including submission of GMAT scores, while entry into HBS’s SELPI do not have formal educational requirements.

IIMs and other Indian B-Schools are killing their own brand to ISB’s advantage, despite having higher ranked One Year MBA courses with better placement numbers and global MBA accreditation from AMBA.

The branding is also affecting the careers of One Year MBA graduates who routinely get mistaken for graduates of an Executive MBA by Human Resource executives. Students report having to struggle to explain the difference between the courses.

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