Method
How we decide
Four questions, asked in the same order for every situation.
1 · Is anything actually requiring it?
The single most useful question, and the one least often asked. If a written rule — a promotion policy, a recruitment notification, a doctoral admission requirement — names a postgraduate qualification, the MBA is doing a job nothing else can do. If nothing names it, the case gets much weaker.
2 · Is it the qualification you need, or a capability?
A great many people want one skill and buy two years of general management. Changing function is a specialisation problem. Reading a balance sheet is a six-week problem. Neither needs a degree.
3 · What does it cost you, including the years?
The fee is the visible cost. Two years of evenings is the real one. A programme at ₹38,000 and one at ₹2,00,000 cost the same in time, which is why the cheaper one wins whenever the credential is the point.
4 · Would you finish it?
Completion rates fall sharply with programme length. A one-year diploma you finish beats a two-year degree you abandon in semester three, and the second outcome is more common than anyone admits.
How we are paid
Institutions pay us when a student enrols through us. You pay us nothing. That is also why three of the twelve verdicts on this site are negative — a decision tool that never says no is an advertisement, and you would be right not to trust it.
If the verdict was yes: IICT and IIPM, Lucknow
This tool tells you when an online MBA is worth doing. When the answer is yes and price is the deciding variable, these are the two autonomous institutes we run a programme with.
IICT — Indian Institute of Commerce and Trade
IICT Business School, Lucknow — usually written IICT Lucknow — has run autonomous management programmes for over 30 years. The IICT MBA is a two-year programme across 30+ specialisations, taught by distance and online, with admission by profile review rather than an entrance test. The complete fee is ₹32,350, paid to the institute directly.
IIPM — Indian Institute of Pharmaceutical Marketing
IIPM Lucknow specialises in pharmaceutical marketing and pharma business management — sector-specific management education that university syllabi rarely cover. The IIPM MBA runs on the same model and the same ₹32,350 complete fee.
IICT Business School, Lucknow · iict.in · IIPM Lucknow · iipm.co.in