Pritam Singh, director, MDI

In March 2006, the MBA programme offered by Gurgaon-based Management Development Institute (MDI) received accreditation from the European Association of MBAs (AMBA), making MDI the first Indian B-School to hold an international accreditation and the second (after Hong Kong Polytechnic University) in Asia. No small feat given that AMBA is one of the better known international accreditation bodies. Many give credit for this bold initiative to director Pritam Singh took the reigns for the second time in late 2003. During his tenure, a host of new courses with specialisations in public policy, energy management and human resource management have also been added to MDI's academic portfolio and placements have improved. Excerpts from an email interview with Pritam Singh:

When did MDI apply for accreditation to AMBA? Why?
MDI applied for accreditation to AMBA in the month of August, 2005. The need to apply for AMBA accreditation arose from:

.The vision to promote Masters level business education in India to an international level.

.To attract prospective international students and employers of UK and the rest of the Europe, thereby, to increase the supply of and demand for MDI's management programmes internationally.

Are all management courses offered by MDI AMBA-accredited?
The Post Graduate Programme in Management, Post Graduate Programme in HR, the National Management Programme and the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management are all AMBA accredited.

What value has the AMBA accreditation added to MDI?
We are in a position to bench mark our performance with any leading institution in AMBA community.

What aspects of the school did the AMBA inspectors look into?
The entire process took about three months. The AMBA inspectors looked in to:

The Institution
The institution offering an MBA should have a clear strategy and mission, explicitly expressed and regularly updated. It should have a clear understanding of the market for its products. This includes a means of regular access to employer opinion. The institution should have its own identity and an adequate degree of independence from any larger institutional structure of which it may be a part, as well as secured financial viability and institutional continuity.

Faculty
The faculty should be large enough to fully resource the institution's activities. There should be a critical mass that will be sufficient to ensure the institution is of national (and potentially) international standing. Staff should be credible in terms of their academic qualifications, their ability to teach business at postgraduate level, the quality of their research and the extent of their business contacts and consultancy activities. Seventy-five per cent of faculty should have a Masters or Doctoral degree in a discipline relevant to the subject for which they are responsible.

Students
As the MBA is a post-experience, postgraduate degree, students admitted onto an accredited MBA must have a minimum of three years work experience, with the cohort averaging 5 years experience. Evidence will be required to show rigour in admissions standards, which must include academic criteria as well as work experience. The student body must be substantial and varied enough to form a critical mass and emphasis is placed on the value of peer group exposure, therefore a minimum annual intake of 20 is sought. Institutions having a smaller intake will be expected to demonstrate clearly the ability to provide an adequate level of teaching and other resources.

Curriculum
The curriculum should be generalist in nature and must cover the core business skills: marketing, the economic and legal environment of a business, accounting and quantitative methods, finance, organizational theory, interpersonal skills, information technology, and the processes and practices of management. Each core subject should be separately addressed by a course of instruction, although integration of these core subjects must also be addressed.

Increasingly over recent years, some aspects of the curriculum have gained special attention. Firstly, that it should reflect the increasingly international aspect of business, secondly, that it should pay attention to ethical and social issues, and thirdly, that it should include the so-called 'soft' largely interpersonal skills of management in practice. The total number of contact hours should not be fewer than 500 for a full-time MBA. The MBA should be of at least one year's duration where taken full-time and two-years where taken part-time.

Assessment
All elements of a course should be formally assessed, by whatever means are appropriate to the subject involved. Examinations must be the principal (though not necessarily the sole) method of assessment and a dissertation will also be sought as evidence of an ability to integrate the individual core items of the curriculum.

Additional Factors
Accreditation is also based on factors such as the availability of language teaching, library and computer facilities and international contacts. The extent to which students' reactions are taken into account in the continuing process of course design and improvement is also important.

What was the methodology adopted?
The methodology adopted by AMBA inspectors was mission and process oriented. A peer review committee inspected all the above exhaustively.

Is the accreditation valid only for a certain period of time? If not, what are the conditions for continuity?
Initially it is valid for one year and the conditions change from time to time.

How is AMBA different from EQUIS, AACSB and SAQS closer home?
AMBA as an accreditation body is very strong in U.K. EQUIS is in the rest of Europe and AASCB is in U.S. SAQS is strong in South Asia. They are similar in terms of integrity and creditworthiness. But while AMBA accredits programmes, AASCB and EQUIS accredit institutions.

Has MDI applied for EQUIS or AACSB accreditation? Why?
We are in the process of applying for EQUIS and AASCB accreditation. This will help us to further strengthen our quality of education and will go on to extend our scope of business to Europe and U.S.A

Do other accrediting bodies like EQUIS and AACSB also have a provision similar to AMBA's PEMM*?
No they are different.

*Note: In March 2005, AMBA had launched the accreditation of pre-experience Masters degrees in general management (PEMM). This looks at degrees similar to the MBA in terms of curriculum but with no requirement for previous work experience. This move was made to capture the sizeable market of post graduate management programmes targeted at aspirants fresh out of college.