For the countless many who stick onto their boring jobs just for the sake of earning enough money to do a part time MBA, the AICTE has struck a needle right in the eye.  From the next academic year onwards the AICTE has banned any Business school in India from offering part time options for doing an MBA in any stream of management whether it may be finance, marketing , Human Resource and so on.

What it meant was that from the next academic year onwards the AICTE will not approve any new courses in the Part time category and also will not allow any fresh admissions to the existing courses. This has dashed the hopes of thousand of working students and professionals as it has landed them into a state of uncertainty. They are confused about what to do again.

The Victims Of The Move

According to various industry experts this move by the AICTE is expected to affect around 400 Colleges and around 20000 students.

Working students and professionals opt for part time MBA courses because with their professional experience and MBA they can become eligible to be selected for better and higher pay oriented jobs. Now as far as they are concerned their hopes of getting a good white collar job with high salary will just be dream. A part time MBA course is what many of the students can afford because most of the B schools charge anywhere in the range from Rs 35,000-Rs 40,000/- per year for a part time course. On the other hand if an applicant were to opt for a full time course in MBA he/she would have to churn out around sums ranging from Rs 3 Lakh to Rs 15 Lakh depending upon the institute he/she chooses to study.

More over there are also other down falls associated with a part time option like the lack of direct faculty interfaces and guidance. Most of the time the course evaluation is fully dependent on how they do projects and there is no way to guarantee that projects are done by candidates themselves. More over the different facets of management skills like team work, leadership, listening and negotiations skills cant be assessed as the program is run over a distance and face to face interactions are quite limited by nature.

Why this ban on part-time MBA Course?

The reason for this ban as stated by AICTE is that many B schools are degrading the quality of  management education by offering low and sub standard programmes which will tarnish the image of MBA. These institutions are misusing the permissions granted to them which allow them to conduct Part time courses. The Business Standard voiced the opinion of a senior official of the AICTE that  many business schools are misusing this part-time option and that schools are not working within the regulated framework.

Managements Furious Over Decision

It is the managements of various colleges offering part time MBA courses that have come out with strong voices agaist AICTE’s decision. They say that even though a few colleges might misuse permissions given to them the decision of the AICTE will punish even colleges that follow all guidelines set by it. As spokesperson from a reputed college while expressing anguish over the sudden turn of incidents. As per them, they were running this program for more than a decade and their program is one of the most reputed in the country. Now for them to stop this program all of a sudden would really harm their reputation and brand value. Most of the schools believe that such a decision from AICTE is little untimely and something which is done in haste.

Its AICTE Vs AIMS

The decision has invoked strong responses from the Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS). Both the AICTE and AIMS have long been engaged in various disputes and has challenged each other in various legal proceedings at different periods. The AIMS has vowed to retaliate and challenge this ordeal by the AICTE as they say that this move is unfair to both the students and the colleges.

What Next?

Whatever be the outcome of these prolonged legal battles the  affected student community can only pray that a reasonable and reliable agreement is reached between the AICTE and the AIMS else the hopes of many to be an MBA graduate will just remain an unfulfilled desire.