ICFAI - Part Time MBA



This Picture is taken from ICFAI webpage



ICFAI University Tripura is one of the universities in India that provides Distance/Part-Time MBA.  Large numbers of students from all over India enroll to this part time MBA program. I seriously doubt if at-least 50% of the students enrolled clear the first phase of the MBA (Diploma in Business in Management, now this is second stage I guess first stage being Certificate in Business Management). And I do not think even 25% students enrolled complete their MBA.

I joined the ICFAI part time MBA course in January 2008 and I completed my PG Diploma in Business Management recently in July 2011. I could not take some quarterly exams due to my onsite trips and due to office commitments. The ICFAI university guys advertise saying one can complete the MBA in 2 or 2.5 years, according to me this is not at all possible. One requires atleast 3 years to 4 years to complete this MBA. The subjects are really vast, and all papers till PG diploma in business management are objective and most of the answers look very similar. Most the subjects in MBA are theoretical, and this makes life more difficult as we need to remember many things to answer objective questions correctly.

If one is ready to spend somewhere around 15 hours per week then he/she will be able to clear all the papers with good marks and some understanding of management subjects. But I am very sure if one goes to exams without any preparation then he will flunk, particularly in the objective papers.

ICFAI University is very regular in sending of the text books, study guides and work books. Each subject will have a text book, a study guide and work book. If one revises the study guide or text book once or twice and is confident about the questions in work book then, he can be sure of clearing the papers. Only thing I want to say is "one cannot take the exams of ICFAI very lightly".

ICFAI MBA is suited for people looking for extra MBA degree with some understanding of management topics. The ICFAI MBA degree is not so easy to obtain so it has some value in industry, particularly it is useful if one wants to move up the ladder in one existing organization. It is definitely of no use if a person wishes to make a career change from one domain to another. Also MBA is all about study of case studies and class room discussions; definitely ICFAI part time MBA lacks all of these.

According to me there are several other good certifications that one can take up to get some basic understanding of management topics like CBM , ABM from APBM organization or PMP, CAPM from PMI institute, then we have Management Development Programs which run from 3-4 days at reputed B schools like IIM's, ISB and XLRI . Even IISC and IIT's have some very good training programs for Project management in IT industry.

Also there are part time MBA programs offered by IIM-B, IIM-K, IIM-C which are definitely more worth also more helpful to understand the intricacy of management topics.

I d'nt think ICFAI part time MBA is a bad option but I would definitely say there are many other good options to get sound knowledge of management topics. One needs to analyze all options available and get to know their pros and cons before joining any part time MBA program. Also we should join part time MBA programs only if we are serious about it and we are sure of devoting at-least 15-20 hours every week, else it would be very difficult to complete the course also it will be mere waste of valuable money.