New Delhi: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has asked all management institutions under its ambit to stop running courses offered as five-year integrated or dual-degree management courses.
The HRD ministry-controlled AICTE has directed universities and independent management schools to close down such as courses as they are not approved by the University Grants Commission.
"Offered with nomenclatures such as BM/BAM/MAM, these programmes were introduced from the academic year 2012-13 by the AICTE. The institutions who were running the dual degree courses are given an extension of approval for the five-year integrated MBA courses in lieu of five-year dual degree courses of MBA/MAM," an AICTE official told Times of India.
The technical education regulatory body further stated that students who are already pursuing such courses will be allowed an exit option. However, there will be no fresh admissions for the dual-degree courses.
"Accordingly, there would be an exit option at the end of three years for the students, who have joined the dual degree courses in 2015-16, and prior to that, by awarding a BBA degree instead of BM degree. The students who have completed four years, would be asked to complete one more year and will be awarded BBA/MBA degree after completion of five-years, as there is no exit option at the end of fourth year. Those who would be completing five-years under MBA/MAM dual degree course (s), may be awarded BBA/MBA degrees," said AICTE.
Over 11,000 institutions run under AICTE, of which the major ones running the five-year integrated MBA programs include Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), University of Lucknow, Kurukshetra University and Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS, Pilani).
It is important to mention here that Indian Institutes of Managament (IIMs) don’t fall under the control of AICTE.
In 2012-13, the AICTE itself had allowed the dual-degree programme in order to meet the industry demands and changing requirements. Such courses were aimed at providing an undergraduate degree at the end of three years, followed by a master’s degree on completion of the course.
