One institution cannot offer both PGDM and MBA directs AICTE

New Delhi: The All India Council for Technical Education has written to all state and central universities and deemed-to-be universities informing them that "an institute cannot run both PGDM and MBA programmes simultaneously".

The Master's in Business Administration is a degree and offered only by degree-granting institutions. The postgraduate diploma in management, as the AICTE letter clarifies, was meant for "standalone institutions which were neither universities not affiliated to any university on the lines similar to IIMs [or, Indian Institutes of Management]".

However, several institutions were apparently running PGDM courses "concurrently" with MBAs "under the banner of Management Programme". These have now been directed to convert all PGDM courses into MBAs or run the diploma courses in separate standalone institutions. The letter points out that as per AICTE Regulations 2020, having them both together in the same institution is "not permissible".

Check the directive below