Ed-tech partners dilute the rigour of an online PGDM: MDI Gurgaon dean

NEW DELHI: Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon has started offering online postgraduate management programmes this year. In a conversation with Careers360 Ajay Jain, dean of accreditations, Online PGDM, spoke about collaborating with foreign universities and new centres planned for MDI. Edited excerpts below.

Q. Are you offering management programmes online?

A. Yes, from this year we are offering an online postgraduate diploma in management (PGDM) programme. This is an India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)-)-approved programme, We are also running a full-time in-campus PGDM programme. We have borrowed our course content from the full-time programme, the only difference is that this programme is being delivered on a digital platform.

Q. What is the eligibility for this online programme and what is the selection process?

A. Whosoever applies for this programme should have at least two years of work experience after they get the degree for graduation. They have to do it from an AICTE or University Grants Commission (UGC) or ministry of education-approved institution. The student should have at least 50 percent marks. This is the minimum eligibility in terms of application. When we offer online degrees, we do not need the hostel facilities or the campus infrastructure. Also, many participants who are working in the corporate sector after graduation are lacking a formal degree in management. So, this is an opportunity provided by us to those who want to be exposed to management education.

The next step is a rigorous interview process conducted by two very senior faculty members to assess the suitability of the candidate for the programme and also the interest of the candidate so that we do not have candidates dropping out. The interviews are held online. We have students from the northern states and also from the southern states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. We don't want to invite them and unnecessarily waste their resources.

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Q. Will the PGDM programme be purely online?

A. No, the programme also offers an opportunity for the students to visit the MDI campus for 10 days for campus immersion. It is not purely online, it is hybrid. The students have to be on campus in the first two days of joining the programme. Then we invite them for five days when they complete the one-year programme and at that time, they will be given the diploma certificates. The next visit is during the campus immersion and the students will be taken to the nearby industries. They will see and learn about the best managerial practices or best management practices. While they are here we will conduct an experiential outbound leadership programme and we will be arranging face-to-face meetings with a few successful CEOs. We have guest faculty from foreign universities for this programme.

Q. What is the fee structure like?

A. The fee for the two-year PGDM programme is Rs. 8.95 lakh overall. If one compares our fees with other top-ranking institutions, they are offering the same programme at around Rs. 14 lakh and they are also collaborating with ed-tech partners.

When the students come here for the orientation and campus immersion, their board and lodging will be covered by the fee structure. Also, we are not collaborating with any ed-tech partner. Ed-tech partners, in my view, dilute the rigour of a programme. They are running their own business at the cost of our brand. The most important point is that we are offering this programme at an appropriate cost.

Q. What will be the size of these classes?

A. The total available seats for the online PGDM is 180 right now which was approved last year. The programme was introduced this year. We are keeping the class size up to 50 as we want the classes to be interactive. Right now, we have 70 students in a class. Also, since the students are working professionals, the classes are conducted in the evening hours and on weekends, we conduct them from 10 am to 1.30 pm.

Q. Are you collaborating with foreign universities?

A. London School of Banking and Insurance or LSBI has started its operations in India, I already met the director of this institute, and we are also thinking of doing some activities together which will include seminars and conferences, consulting, measuring certain impacts, like that of digital payments. The faculties from the institute will also be involved in taking classes for the PGDM students. We are also inviting guest faculty from other foreign institutions.

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Q. Is MDI setting up any new centre or school?

A. We already have the School of Public Policy. We are now establishing a new school called the School of Management of Financial Institutions. I am also running a centre of excellence for Indian thought and management called Bharatiya Chintan and Prabandhan. Being a professor in the area of leadership and organisational behaviour, we see that most of the knowledge that is being disbursed in our subject is also available in ancient Indian scriptures. So right now we are studying the knowledge in our resources like Ramayan, Mahabharata, Jainism and Buddhism. So, we are trying to correlate the ancient knowledge with the modern knowledge of management and see the relevance in the current context. We are running this from October 16, 2021.

Q. Please tell us more about the School of Management of Financial Institutions.

A. We are already working on this and it has been approved by our board. The school was inaugurated on October 7, 2023. The moment this school is in action, we will be organising some collaborative conferences, seminars and workshops and we will be offering some short-term certificate courses in the field of financial management. This is what we call the leadership development programme in the banking and insurance sector. This will be conducted online and offline, both in collaboration with foreign universities.

In the long run, we would also like to offer fellowship programmes, doctoral programmes and post-doctoral programmes. MDI’s core competency is in the finance area. MDI is driven by the MDI Society which comprises the chief managing directors (CMD) of various banks like Union Bank, Canara Bank, SBI, LIC and others.