Hyderabad: Higher Educational Institutions barred from holding PGDM, MBA simultaneously

Hyderabad: Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) recognised by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) running management courses have to choose either Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) or Master's in Business Administration (MBA).

A UGC direction sent to the universities running under the Central, State, Private and Deemed-to-be universities said that the council had allowed running the PGDM courses only in standalone institutions.

The HEIs, so permitted are neither universities nor affiliated to any university on the lines of similar to Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

However, HEIs have violated this norm and running both the PGDM and MBA courses simultaneously under the management studies programme. Against this backdrop, the AICTE has asked all the HEIs running both the PGDM and MBA programmes to convert all the management programmes either to PGDM or MBA courses.

Universities, as well as institutions affiliated to the universities, are also asked to affect the conversion of their courses with immediate effect.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior official from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) said, "For the purpose of the new direction, university, university departments, constituent colleges, as well as off-campus, autonomous colleges affiliated to the university are considered one and the same."

A university cannot conduct MBA and its constituent colleges and off-campuses from now onwards can only offer either PGDM or MBA. But, the AICTE has suggested converting the universities, and its affiliated colleges to convert all the PGDM courses into MBA programmes. "Because, the AICTE would not consider a constituent college and affiliated colleges as the stand-alone institution," he added.

The new directive said "institutions offering the same courses with affiliation from the universities cannot be considered as standalone institutions. Further, in some States, the fee is being fixed by the state regulatory authorities, autonomous courses and courses affiliated to a university and board are considered as the same."

To effect the new changes, the HEIs are asked to apply to the AICTE for the approval of conversion and the council will not collect any Technical Education Regulatory (TER) fee.

However, if a trust, society or company intended to run both the MBA and PGDM, then, they will have to apply as a new technical institution with the same intake of seats.

All such applicants will have to further comply with the regulations like creating necessary faculty, infrastructure and other facilities within two years to fulfil the norms and an affidavit stating the same should be submitted to the AICTE in all such cases.