‘Our online MBA courses have a 80-90% completion rate’: upGrad MD

NEW DELHI: Mayank Kumar, co-founder and managing director of upGrad, spoke to Careers360 about new courses in accounting and management, the profile of learners, trends in online MBA courses, and more. Edited excerpts below.

Q. What are some of the signature management courses at upGrad?

A. There are several kinds of management programmes. The most popular courses are some with our global university partners, as well as our Indian partners. The three different categories where we are witnessing more people applying include the international MBA programme because we believe that credentials add to the international flavour overall.

The premium international MBAs are pursued by people who earn Rs 7-8 lakh per month.

The second segment is of shorter courses which span less than two years. So, we see people with three-to-five years of experience seeking guidance for a one-year or 18-month programme.

The third part is the affordable MBA we offer with Indian universities at a cost of Rs 1-2 lakh. These programmes are taken up by learners who are early in their experience level.

Q. Which MBA specialisations are popular these days?

A. Specialisations like leadership and strategy are popular. Second, marketing and finance have turned out to be broad themes. The third one which has gained popularity in the last two to three years is technology and management with artificial intelligence analytics built in.

A larger number of people who apply for these management courses are working professionals. An online course addresses a key concern. This happens when they notice that their career growth and trajectory are limited and taking up an MBA programme will help them in their overall growth.

Further, MBA as a course is a combination of knowledge, skills and application. These days, there is a push for knowledge application in the local industrial context. For instance, in sales or marketing and supply chain roles, organisations look for people who have specialisations but at the same time can also work for the power or technology industry. There is also a need for valuable communication. For instance, there is a very strong emergence of soft skills.

Lastly, someone pursuing an MBA needs to have an understanding of artificial intelligence and its critical aspects.

Usually, our learners fall in the age bracket of 21-25 followed by the 26-30 age group. Between January and August this year, we witnessed nearly 2,000 enrolments every month for our MBA programmes in partnership with leading Indian and global universities.

Q. Do you think MBA is losing its charm?

A. Like engineering, there are vacant seats in management courses as well.

In the last few years, many new MBA institutes have come up. The return on investment (RoI) of MBA institutions, especially offline, after the top 10-15 institutions, has become very poor.

During an offline MBA, people lose two years of salary but still don't receive a great average salary after completion of the course. So, online programmes are becoming a major area of interest for several working professionals now.

We have also seen that overall growth in terms of ROI in offline courses is not as much as online ones. And now, after the University Grants Commission (UGC) opened up online courses, people have access to high-quality online programmes from Indian universities. People now prefer online courses as there is no loss of opportunity cost and receive an upside in the process.

Q. Can online MBA degree programmes outdo classroom learning in terms of quality and value? How do you ensure your courses have value over others?

A. There is a general perception that online courses are not as good as offline ones. However, people are choosing online programmes because the ROI is much better. When you look at the placement data, most of the students are from an online environment.

One of our batches that completely studied online received the highest placement in the history of Indian MBAs. Some credibility for online education was made through this. Many saw this as a positive sign from the standpoint of a working professional who doesn't have the option to go to a traditional institution and found online courses as a substitute.

Candidates who took up these courses could devote a sufficient amount of time and commitment towards their work and corporates found this trend positive. This was also a reason for an uptick in online MBAs.

Q. What new courses is UpGrad planning to launch?

A. We are introducing a one-year master's programme in management and accounting. For this we are partnering with an accreditation body called the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

Through this programme one will not only get a master's degree in financial and accounting management but also an additional ACCA qualification. The course will be launched by the end of next year.

We also aim to launch many other courses in the AI space, accounting and financial services and a few others.

Q. What are some of the job opportunities upGrad provides to its learners?

A. A lot of our learners are working professionals and so, not everybody is looking for a job. We are partnering with two staffing or recruiting companies which act as placement agencies. Further, once they apply for a job, we hand-hold them to crack interviews.

Q. How is the curriculum different from other online MBAs?

A. We have a strong focus on outcomes and one of the strongest outcome measures is completion rate. So, compared to other online courses, our completion rate is 80-90% and more. We are operating at a very high completion rate compared to other online platforms which have about 60%-80%.

Further, after six months of completion, we measure the programme outcome. Around 80% of our learners find a meaningful outcome in their career through these courses.

We work a lot to bring industry elements into the curriculum which includes industry experts. This is where people find the true value of the course. Also, the programmes come with many career support elements, including applying, interviewing, cracking various jobs, etc.