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Introduction & Summary

Every year more than 1.10 Lakh students aspire for and take admission in a post graduate program in management and its variants, like MBA, autonomous Post Graduate Diploma in Management / Business Administration, and in other streams such as Hotel Management,
Insurance Management, and Foreign Trade Management, etc., in India.

It is boom-time for MBAs and Engineers all over the world since they are major demand in market, and which is likely to remain so for at least next 5 years.

However, the quality of pass-outs from various university schools and private autonomous colleges is a serious matter of national concern. In fact, a stage has already reached where anyone aspiring to get MBA / PGDM level certification can now get entry in one or other school somewhere in India or even in foreign universities and institutes.

There are numerous commercial and pedagogical (teaching) models that have emerged. The latest revolutions in convergence technology based on Internet, microwave and satellite transmission have helped this surge. A number of third-rate institutes and universities have jumped on to make money by launching distance education programs, which same universities themselves don't recognize for various purposes. This is a big fraud with citizens of India.

Many B-schools claim as being centers of excellence and charge huge fees (IIMs included). This is also true for state-aided or controlled, university affiliated or autonomous institutes alike and new private universities. On the whole, education in management, excepting for a few universities' with their own campuses, is sub-standard and avoidable for various reasons.

The student is in quandary as to what to choose and how to choose and what should be fair expenses for getting this PG level business management education degree or diploma and will it be really worth?

Whereas on one hand, employers, students and their parents are concerned about quality of these PG pass-outs, on the other hand, a plethora of regulatory bodies have miserably failed to improve and maintain quality. Large numbers of unapproved and fly-by-night people are running institutes in engineering, management, and other professional courses, and students and employers both should beware of these. Nowhere in the world the higher education is unregulated. USA has most rigorous accreditation process. Education is essentially non-profit work but has been turned into a tax-free, free-for-all business in the name of liberalization and reforms. The Governments in India has abandoned its duty to keep fees in check and regulate higher education, especially the current government run by UPA.

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* Contributed by -
Prof. R. K. Gupta,
B.E. (Honors), MBA FIE FIMA,
Senior Consultant & Professor of Management at Jodhpur,
Director, Sobhagya Consultancy & Marketing Services, India.