MBA from an IIT: Is it worth?

By Media Cell DMS, IIT Delhi

Almost every MBA aspirant in India dreams to get a coveted seat at one of the IIM’s, which are considered to be the best places to pursue management education in the nation. The top IIM’s offer high quality education and have an enviable placement record. There was a time when quality business education was synonymous with the IIM’s, but things are changing. Several colleges in India, particularly the schools of management from various IIT’s, with their infrastructure and unique course offerings have grown in stature and are looked upon as centres of excellence.

IITs’ foray into management education (in its current form) has been relatively a recent phenomenon. IIT Kharagpur was the first to start teaching management in 1993 and others followed suit over the next decade. Their courses are indeed young compared to many other prominent B schools in the country, but nevertheless, they are starting to get noticed. Starting late has in fact helped the IITs to offer unique courses which usually do not find places in the curriculum of established B Schools for example IIT Delhi offers a two year specialized program on telecommunication systems and opportunity to pursue a month long winter internship in the month of December.

Recently the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has changed the curriculum of their MBA programs as well as the admission criteria. The biggest changes that have been brought to the new MBA programs is that, the two-year MBA in management systems is now open for candidates from all disciplines. “From 2015, students from all the streams would be welcomed to apply for our MBA programme. IIT-Delhi looks forward to students from diverse backgrounds. We believe that knowledge shouldn’t be restricted to specific disciplines and students from all fields make a good mix at any institution, especially in terms of cross disciplinary learning,” says DMS head Kanika T Bhal

One of the key differentiator in the IITs course structure is flexibility to choose electives and in depth specialization, this also helps in a holistic learning environment created by participation from B Techs, M Techs and MBAs. Being setup in the IIT ecosystem helps student to come across plethora of research and consulting opportunities. A widely integrated alum base shared via IIT tag is one the factors that helps IITs to compete with top notch management institutes. Many a times, final decision on the selection of a B School comes on fees factor. IITs surely score points on this factor with fees ranging from 2 to 8 lacs for the whole course.

Also, being part of the IIT system there other limitations to growth, DMS IIT Delhi has a student cap of 115 students as compared to larger intakes in various IIMs which provide recruiters with a wider diversification. In spite of the goodwill management education in IITs has come to enjoy, they still need to reach at par with Old established IIMs in the eyes of industry and recruiters.

These limitations have not prevented them from producing good management graduates. According to them, the perception gap among recruiters between an MBA from IIT and an IIM is fast narrowing. As it is said management is a marathon. Not a sprint.