AICTE Mandatory disclosure by Bschools, your guide to MBA admission

Confusion and more confusion! Despite having a few MBA admission offers, candidates are in a dilemma which B school to choose. And of course, going by the trend among B schools we find they highlight what they wish to share and conceal those facts which may go against their USPs. This further aggravates the confusion. But all the irrelevant statistics and boastful highlights come to rest when it comes to Mandatory disclosure a pre requisite from AICTE.

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 are to publish these facts along with all the details of the institute.

A candidate is like a small ship full of future career dreams and needs the guidance to move in the right direction so as to reach the destination. A few important aspects in mandatory disclosure may work as light house to get you in your preferred B school.

Is AICTE approval in place?
The institute might bluff in any form but it has to submit the facts before 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 will be a very good idea to spare a few minutes to read the mandatory disclosure well to find out that the B school enjoys the AICTE approval as a whole and for the programme in which you are going to seek admission in particular. If satisfied you may proceed to take the decision.

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 the 6 new IIMs campuses are neither ready nor fully 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 and its working hours, 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 schools vision of imparting education.

Legacy
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 whats available in about us and Mandatory Disclosure, believe the statement in latter.
It is a fact that usually B schools established in some 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. It is advisable to cross check this fact also.
If you have any complains about B- schools, write here: Register your Complain about B-schools

Programmes & Intake
You may be surprised to know but its a fact that even before seeking and obtaining approval from the regulatory authority a few B schools start taking the admission to various proposed MBA programmes. It is also possible that candidates more than permissible strength are 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 whats the permissible intake in each of them.

Hostel facility
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 schools 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. Besides you have 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.

Facts about Faculty
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.
It 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. Following links on MDI and IMT will further clarify the picture before you.
http://www.mdi.ac.in/about-mdi/mandatory-disclosures.html ;
http://www.imt.edu/downloadfiles/md.pdf

What to get from B school website
ROI is not mentioned in the Mandatory Disclosure form of AICTE. The regulatory authority asks the institutes to upload their fee structure on their respective website. This can be understood as it gets changed and once it is posted on the site, its the institute that has to follow it. It could be trusted as no other option is available.

Apart from this the placement data as published by the B school is supposed to be the only source to know about their placement. Its 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, its better to contact some student of the b school who has been the part of current placement process. MBAUniverse.com could be another option to know this fact as it also publishes ROI of top B schools