IIMs defend single-year MBA Degree citing IIM Act, National Education Policy

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs) have cited the IIM Act and the National Education Policy to defend their decision to award degrees instead of diplomas for their popular one-year executive MBA programmes.

In July this year, the education ministry had told the IIMs that their decision to award a degree instead of diploma for the course violated norms laid down by University Grants Commission (UGC), the country’s education regulator.

Recently, the directors of IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhiokode and Indore wrote to the ministry saying the executive programme is “fully consistent with the objectives of the IIM Act” and that of the new National Education Policy.

Sources told ET that the ministry is now preparing to discuss the deadlocked issue with the law ministry. The tenability of a one-year master’s degree, the issue of faculty quota implementation at the IIMs as well as the need to revisit IIM Rules to allow for government intervention in case of violations by the IIMs are said to be on the agenda.

Meanwhile, the IIMs are preparing to award degrees next year for their ongoing one-year programmes and have also announced the programme for the next session.

In a letter to education secretary Amit Khare dated August 13, the IIM directors had pointing out that the IIM Act, 2017 intended to “recognise the IIMs as institutions of national importance; empower the IIMs for global excellence and enable the IIMs to grant degrees in the academic courses conducted by the IIMs, while at the same time maintain the IIMs outside the university system”.

The IIMs also referred to the NEP 2020, which recognises the option of one-year master’s programme and said that the IIMs’ one-year MBA may be seen as “the trailblazer for NEP 2020”. They added how the course could contribute significantly to the pool of qualified manpower required-- to move towards national goals like ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.

The NEP, they said, also focuses on the international practice of giving degrees on the basis of credit hours and not number of years of study.

The IIMs have uniformly decided on the credit hours required for the one-year course in keeping with global practices.

“Degrees were granted to participants of one year full time postgraduate programmes at IIMs only after establishing these standards”, the Directors have said pointing out that the then Education Secretary attended the meeting via video when these standards were adopted in the 13.12.2018 meeting.

The IIM Directors were responding to a July 3 communication by the Education ministry which said that “IIMs have been awarding degrees such as the one year executive MBA degree in violation of the UGC Regulations” and ‘directed’ them to act as per degree granting norms of the University Grants Commission, Act , 1956.

UGC norms allow granting of a Master’s degree only for two-year programmes as per our 3+2 higher education format. One-year programmes typically are referred to as post graduate Diplomas unlike in many western nations where the 4+1 format with one-year Master’s are on offer.

While IIMs have been keen to award degrees for the one year programme in view of global competition, the issue has become a bone of contention for the last few years for the precedent it would set in higher education.

The IIM Directors have defended the one year post graduate programme pointing out that it is a rigorous course open only to students with a minimum four years of work experience, is well recognized and also has parallels in leading global business schools like INSEAD and Canada’s Ivey School of Business.

Further, they have pointed out, that the course is globally recognized—the course at two IIMs is ranked among the top 50 MBA programmes and at three of them among the top 100 as also borne in the 2020 Finance Times Global MBA rankings.

IIMs are also accredited by top international accreditation agencies like AACSB (USA), EFMD (Equis, Europe) and AMBA (UK) and the one year programme is part of the IIM portfolio under accreditation.

The contentious one-year Masters degree at IIMs

• 13.12.2018- Following the IIM Act, 2017 which allows degree granting power to the business schools, top IIMs brought in new regulations at their Board of Governors level to permit awarding of degrees for their one year MBA programs.
• Six leading IIMs-- from IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Lucknow and Kozhikode offer the 1 year Masters degree
• 2018-19—Education ministry red flags the awarding of a degree instead of a Post Graduate Diploma for the one year programme in multiple communications
• June 2020- Law ministry says that while the IIM Act, empowers IIMs to grant degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions, this Act does not define a ‘degree’ and also does not empower the IIMs and their Boards to make any regulations in this regard. Hence, IIMs must act as per prevailing laws on the one year MBA.
• July 2020- Education ministry writes to IIM Directors saying that in view of the same, “all IIMs are directed to act as per the provisions of the IIM Act, 2017 and the interpretation of Department of Legal Affairs that in awarding degree, the institutes are required to act in conformity with UGC Act, 1956”.