Whether you are going to take admission in MBA/PGDM programme of a highly ranked top or middle order ranked B-school as per your preference on location, fee, faculty, placement, it is advisable to read and understand well the AICTE mandatory disclosure and the fee refund policy and verify various facts about the B-school.
To bring transparency and uniformity in the process of MBA admission 2017, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has already instructed the MBA/PGDM colleges to publish the Mandatory Disclosure and fee refund policy on their site to project a true picture regarding their strengths and weaknesses.
AICTE Mandatory Disclosure will save the candidates from getting confused further and fee refund policy will let you know that your money will not go waste in case you decide to withdraw your MBA admission. Many MBA/PGDM colleges allure the MBA aspirants with their boastful publicity. Display of ‘Mandatory disclosure’ and clarity on ‘Fee refund Policy’ has been made a pre requisite by AICTE on the B-school site.
AICTE is the regulator of technical education including management education in India. AICTE Mandatory Disclosure contains the required information about the B school while the AICTE fee refund policy gives clear understanding how much you will get back out of the fee paid for MBA admission in the B-school. No other outside information would be the so correct guide to take admission decision as the above two key ones.
AICTE Mandatory Disclosure: Must read before MBA admission
Since all important aspects in MBA education are expected to remain same in the B schools running AICTE approved programmes, the mandatory disclosure can guide you in your decision. The process is that all the B schools have to apply to AICTE, the regulatory body to obtain various approvals on continuance of course, extension and expansion of the course, intake, number of faculty, infrastructure sharing realistic facts. The B schools have to make available these facts along with all the details of the institute on their website.
In fact despite having MBA admission offers even from good B schools candidates remain in a dilemma which B school they should choose for admission in MBA/PGDM 2017-19 batch. The details given in the Mandatory Disclosure document are important and an MBA aspirant should go through them before taking decision to choose the right B school.
With the display of Mandatory Disclosure, B-schools may not now exaggerate the facts and USPs nor can they conceal those facts which may go against their USPs.
Know the AICTE fee refund policy before taking decision
AICTE fee refund policy allows your MBA fee refund in both the situations whether you may withdraw from the MBA-PGDM B-school you do not want to study in; or you can switch from one B-school to other.
The B-school might hesitate in your MBA fee refund and may misguide you but in your own interest you should refer to the AICTE fee refund policy and should immediately claim the fee refund for your admission fee which you have already paid with the B-school.
In the Chapter IV of Approval Process Handbook , All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has incorporated all the clauses governing fee refund rules. -The reference for fee refund is made to AICTE Guidelines No. - AICTE / Legal / 04(01) / 2007, April 2007).
The tuition fee, development fee and other fee, charged by the institute will constitute the amount of total fee for refund after cancellation of admission secured through Common/Centralized Admission Process rounds, institute level round(s) and vacancy round(s) of admission.
The candidate may cancel admission by submitting an application for cancellation in duplicate, in the prescribed format as advised by the institute or available on its site and may request for refund of fee.
The refund of fee as applicable shall be made within a week’s time as prescribed by AICTE.
Check for Updated AICTE approval
The B-school might publicize anything in any form but it has to submit the facts before AICTE, the regulatory body. Exaggeration or concealment of facts may pose trouble for the B school in the form of cancellation of approval, suspension of a particular course temporarily or permanent. The B schools therefore try to avoid both the situations.
Before taking a decision on admission, it is necessary to spare a few minutes to read the mandatory disclosure well to find out that the B school enjoys the AICTE approval for current admission session also-overall as well as for the programme in which you are going to seek admission in particular. If satisfied you may go forward. If confused contact the B school as well as AICTE.
Check for MBA/PGDM Programmes & Intake
A few B schools start taking the admission to various proposed MBA programmes even before seeking and obtaining approval from the regulatory authority AICTE.
It is also possible that more than permissible strength is allowed to take admission to a particular course. Please remember that in case of non approval by AICTE, it will be difficult to take back the deposited money from these institutes.
Please thoroughly read in the mandatory disclosure about the approved Courses running at the institute, year of launching the course, number of shifts for the course, whether full time or part time whether the programme is accredited and the permissible intake in each programme.
Legacy of the B-school
How old is the B school? When did it start functioning? This fact will let you decide better on admission criteria. Mandatory Disclosure carries this fact and if there is some mismatch between what’s available under the heading ‘about us’ and ‘Mandatory Disclosure’, believe on the statement in Mandatory Disclosure.
Sometimes the B-schools established in a particular year may not be able to start functioning in the same year due to one or other problem. This gap between year of establishment and year of functioning could be of a few years also. The alumni base, corporate connections, learning experience, ROI all could get adversely affected if the B school is not old enough. It is advisable to cross check this fact also in the AICTE Mandatory Disclosure Document.
Teacher-Student Ratio
Different type of faculty members are mentioned on the site of a B school like core, adjunct, guest, visiting and in some cases the administrative staff is clubbed to project better teacher student ratio at the institute. Sometimes you may find the number only without any segregation. This remains confusing to know the facts. AICTE Mandatory Disclosure by the B school has to carry this information on permanent faculty strength.
AICTE Mandatory Disclosure will help you to assess the learning experience with teacher student ratio you are going to have at the institute. Higher the strength of core or permanent faculty better will be the learning environment at the institute
Check the Infrastructure
Any institute can claim to have state of the art campus featured with many USPs but the fact could be, it may be running courses in hired campus. Even many new IIMs do not have their own campuses and are operating from hired campuses. Their campuses are neither ready nor operational till date although you may find great pictures of these campuses on their site. This fact can be ascertained by visiting the site of the institute and reading the mandatory disclosure available there.
According to AICTE regulatory directions, the B schools have to publish the entire open and covered area of the institute, number of lecture theatres and halls, class rooms, computer lab with number of available computers and their configuration, library with available number of books and national & international journals, its working hours and about its administrative block.
This will guide you to know how much the library and computer lab is used by the students. More they use them, better would be the learning environment at the institute. Some of the institutes keep their Library open till late in the night which indicates that the Library is rich with well collected books and periodicals and the students use the facility to the optimum level. It also reflects the B school’s vision of imparting education.
Hostel Facility: Very important
The good infrastructure may not necessarily mean availability of on campus hostel facility. It could be the off campus one, or you may have to search the accommodation on your own. The exact information may not be available on the B school site but Mandatory disclosure will contain this information about on campus/off campus or no hostel facility apart from other information like hostel accommodation capacity, number of 1,2,3 and 4 bedded rooms.
The institute which is old and has on campus facility should be preferred. Next could be the one whose campus is going to be ready in a short time. On campus hostel facility has its own advantages as they are equipped with numerous facilities like wi-fi, common room where recent periodicals and recreational facilities are available. You also get a good opportunity to interact with your peers as well as faculty members residing on campus in case of need. Security will also be better at the on campus hostel accommodation.
Placement: Not a part of Mandatory Disclosure
Placement data will not be mentioned in the AICTE Mandatory Disclosure form. The regulatory authority asks the institutes to upload their fee structure on their respective website. AICTE also does not make it mandatory to display the Placement data on their site. The placement data as displayed on B schools website should be gone through and alumni could be consulted in this matter.
Apart from this, the placement data as published by the B school is supposed to be the only source to know about their placement. It’s quite possible that the B school has calculated its average placement taking into account domestic and international placements giving a rosy picture. To get to know this fact, it’s better to contact some student of the B-school who has been the part of current placement process.
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