MBA and PGDM in India: The Changing Scenario & the Way Forward

March 31, 2020

The Indian economy today is growing at a fast pace and is creating considerable opportunities in the field of IT, manufacturing, pharma, etc. However, we also have to realize that a rapid economic growth through these sectors can happen only with the help of amply skilled managers, which will give the country a desired impetus for the development of each sector. This is the reason why more and more business management schools are springing up within the nation. In fact, management education in India is at its boom today with more than 1000 business schools offering the same.

Furthermore, India’s new educational policy – Foreign Universities Bill further means a hike in the number of foreign business schools in the country, leading to better education with the exchange of global ideas. You will be, however, surprised to know that an Indian MBA or even Indian diplomas in management (PGDM programmes), for that matter, are globally listed far better than any other Asian one. Why? Because India prefers to educate in English, which is the global language not only when it comes to syllabus but also when it comes to exchanging of brainstorming sessions through collaboration with business schools abroad. This does not happen in other countries, like China and Japan, where they teach in their national language only.

The second factor that gives India an upper edge in terms of management studies is the price of education here. In fact, India is providing world-class education at minimal prices. Thus even American and European students are coming to India to attain high-quality management education at cost-effective prices. Moreover, the placement of students studying in India as well as Indian students in topnotch workplaces like the World Bank, Apple, Google, IBM, McKinsey, Accenture, Adobe, etc., further confirms and validates the quality of world-class education that India provides.

Nonetheless, India has a long way to go to retain this reputation; and for this, it is important that management institutions in the nation adopt and follow the global standards of education and incorporate the following features in their infrastructure and pedagogy:

· Make management education student-centric, not faculty-centric

· Involved in Industry collaboration to hone up the practical skills of the students via internship/training

· Organize regular practical training at a related management industry to help students capture the right pulse

· Craft the management curriculum in line with the latest industry trends, standards, and practices

· Incorporate digital education in the curriculum, which is a must in the current scenario, whether to train students or the faculty

· Have faculty with diversified experience. Unlike the yesteryears when the faculty used to remain restricted to just teaching, today it is required that they should diversify to training, research, and consultancy.

· Engaging students in seminars, etc. wherein industry experts impart them with current knowledge.

· Globalize Education: This can only be achieved by collaborating with foreign universities. India’s upgraded education policy will go a long way to help do this.

· Replace most of the theory-based education slowly yet steadily with practical-based education as only this comes handy when the students look for jobs in the corporate world outside.

· R&D based collaboration: Constant research and development, whether in the industry or its related education is a must and thus it is important that the curriculum at a management school keeps updating with the changing demands of the industry. This can be achieved only when a management school collaborates with the big-wigs of the industry to walk hand-in-hand to create world-class management graduates/postgraduates.

Times have definitely changed and what did wonders in the past may prove useless in the future. So, creating new and better courses and customizing them as per the interest of the industry as well as the students is the need of the current management education system. Therefore, if the Indian management education has to stay world-class, it has not only to challenge what is available but it also has to reinvent itself from time to time to meet the modern needs of the dynamic global business environment.

Every industry needs to come forward to help improve management education with each passing year and the government has to provide required financial support as well as policy support for research and development so as to meet the needs of the education sector. It is only with the collaboration of all stakeholders, including industry experts, quality educators, keen students, quality educational institutions, strong government as well as thinkers and global business experts that there can be a surety that management education in India will stay world-class and only get better with time.

We, at the Asian Business School located at Sector 125-Noida within the Delhi NCR, stand tall as an innovative centre of academic excellence approved by AICTE and one of the top colleges for PGDM / MBA in India. Our programmes are purposeful and professionally oriented. The core advantage of studying at ABS is to get an internationally recognized qualification by the finest academic minds who impart holistic knowledge by deductive learning methodology.

ABS has international tie-ups with renowned international institutions. United Kingdom’s University of Central Lancashire, Northumbria University, Winchester University & Oxford Business College are some of the overseas institutions of higher learning lending support to ABS in management education. ABS has strong industry-business school interface to integrate classroom teaching and training and practical experience in the field to bridge the gap between theory and practice. ABS focuses on enhancing the capability of the students to lead and manage businesses by learning to adopt a systematic approach to identifying problems and finding their solutions using analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills and understanding financial and accounting aspects of business in a logical manner. This makes ABS not a top PGDM / MBA College in Noida only, but also across India as well.