Overview:

Indian institutes of management are renowned for their business studies in India. Students are selected through one of the most renowned exams in India, the common aptitude test, commonly known as the CAT  exam. More than two lakh students take the exam yearly.

This year’s announcement for the examination is expected to happen during the month of June. On graduating from these elite institutes, students are generally presented with the Post Graduate Programme Diploma, unlike this year when some of the institutes presented with the masters of business administration degree.

Issue overview:

Every year during the convocation of the institutes, the Post Graduate Programme (PGP) diploma is given to the students. But this year IIM Ahmedabad counted on giving MBA, masters of business administration degrees to the postgraduate programme students.

Similarly, Bangalore also offered the same degree during its 44^th convocation. Same was the case with the Calcutta and Udaipur  IIMs. The consequence of these degrees was a one year programme instead of a two-year programme which were enforced due to the IIM act of 2017.

It was great news for the students because of the degrees considerably higher value than the otherwise postgraduate programme diploma, but also a headache for the officials and human resources development ministry because of its major setbacks.

Although the process is not finalised, according to the officials, it is going to continue for the following years.

IIM Act, 2017:

The IIM Act 2017 grants the Indian Institutes of Management power to give degrees and declares them as the institutions of national importance.

This act allowed the IIMs to act autonomously and grant the degrees as decided by the board of the institution itself without any interference from the outside while it follows the university grants commission guidelines.

Taking advantage of this act IIMs are now able to provide their postgraduate programme students with the degree of masters of business administration, commonly known as MBA. Also, these institutes will be able to provide with the doctorate of philosophy or commonly known as PhDs for the students formerly decorated with the fellowship programme.

Consequences:

Since some international recruiters prioritise masters of business administration over postgraduate diploma in management degree, students getting an MBA will be facilitated and get a better range of opportunities.

But since India follows the scheme of three plus two years for higher education, i.e. three years for undergraduate programme and two years for the postgraduate programme it creates conflicts whereas many foreign institutes rely on four-year plus one-year methodology, i.e. four undergraduate years and one postgraduate year.

This conflict leads to students losing one year of studies. Moreover, it will also create pressure for the ministry of human resource development because of the sudden change in the programmes. In case other institutes begin following the footsteps of the Indian institutes, it would be difficult for the ministry to handle and change the associated programmes accordingly.

Conflicts:

Since India does not have a provision for any one year programme, enforcing it would create hurdles in the administration.

Moreover, if the Indian institute of management continues to provide Masters of Business Administration degrees with one year programme, then the non-Indian institute business institutes will be compelled to follow the lead of the Indian institutes of management, and hence will cause the system to alter and may cause further havoc.

It is also a matter of concern because the University Grants Commission does not hold any guidelines on one-year graduate programmes.

Reports:

According to sources, Director of IIM Bangalore has declined any claims on the ministry holding objections on the decision of the Indian institutes of management regarding the degree and diploma issue.

Also, the bill stated the freedom of the institutes to provide whichever among the degree or diploma they want to provide until and unless it strictly follows the university grants commission guidelines, therefore at least the Indian institutes of management are free to grant either degree or the diploma to the students.

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Source – ThePrint