Mid-way MBA

The demand for mid-career education is spawning one-year MBA programmes .

Five years after Indian School of Business-Hyderabad launched its one-year post-graduate programme in management (PGPM) for middle-level management executives, a host of other premier B-schools in the country have followed suit.

While IIM Ahmedabad launched its one-year programme for executives (PGPX)last year, IIM-Calcutta will be launching its post-graduate programme for executives (PGPEX) this December. Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, and Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) Business School Hyderabad, will also launch their programmes early next year.

IIM-Calcutta will call the programme PGPEX and charge a fee of Rs 8 lakh. The eligibility criteria will be five years of work experience and a GMAT score.

MDI's programme, which will be called Global Executive Management Programme (Global MBA), will be launched in January 2007 in partnership with B-schools in France, Germany and the US including MDI's campus in Gurgaon. The fee would be Rs 11 lakh and students would visit all these campuses as part of the 15 month programme. The eligibility criteria will be 5-10 years of experience and GMAT and CAT scores will be also be considered

ICFAI, though, has not named its course so far but has plans to launch it in May 2007. The course fee will be between Rs 6-8 lakh and the institute plans to start the programme on the lines of that started by IIMs. Eligibility for the programme would be three-five years of experience with GMAT and IBSAT (ICFAI's own exam) scores.

But why this sudden rush for one-year MBA programmes? Says Professor B B Chakraberty of IIM-C, "We have been conducting management development programme s for a long time now and over the years have realised there is a need in the market for mid-level executives to sharpen their management skills. Thus we thought of launching this programme."

V Panduranga Rao, founding director ICFAI says, "It is a niche market and is growing. Besides, working executives don't want to give two-years of time to study and then go for internships. Companies have felt and shown keen interest in this kind of programme. So we will be catering to their demand."

Agrees Bakul H Dholakia, director IIM-Ahmedabad, "In India higher education is divided into two segments"� for freshers and the experienced lot. Mid-career demand for education has emerged in India and therefore one-year MBA programme becomes relevant and rich for people with experience in the field."

Is the one-year MBA programme here to stay? Says Dholakia, "This market will saturate very fast. The size of applicants itself is not more than 1200. But as long as there are freshers who pass the bachelors degree and want to study further, the two-year programme will always be in demand."

Also, the Return on Investment from a one-year MBA programme vis-a-vis the conventional two-year MBA programme from premier b-schools is not all that adequate.

Consider this: At ISB, last year's average salary was Rs 11 lakh while the fee a student pays is Rs 14 lakh plus. On the contrary at IIM-A the average salary was Rs 9.7 lakh (for the two-year MBA programme) against the fee of Rs 3.9 lakh (approx)that a student pays for the course. This implies that students despite paying a lower fee are able to get higher salary placement in a two-year MBA programmes in a premier B-school like IIM-A. Also students at the IIM-A class include 60 per cent of freshers, as opposed to ISB in fact, 90 per cent of the class has some years of work experience.

Despite this, industry players say it is worth doing a one-year MBA. Says Prof Ram Mohan Rao, Dean ISB, "One-year MBA programme is certainly attractive as it saves the opportunity cost. If an executive stays out of job for one more year, he loses out on one-year's salary. Therefore, a one-year MBA course is better."

Prof B B Chakraberty of IIM-C says, "If you pursue a similar programme at an international B-school, the charges are humungous. It is certainly worth paying the amount at Indian management schools as we get international quality and standard at a cheap fee." A little wonder then that these schools are making the most of the booming economy and market.