One Year MBA in India: Colleges, Courses, Fees, Admissions

If you are a working professional and looking for accurate information about One Year MBA programs offered by top MBA colleges with 1 year MBA like ISB, IIMs, Master’s Union, XLRI, SPJIMR, MDI, IMI New Delhi, SOIL and other top B-schools, welcome to MBAUniverse.com One Year MBA Channel. In fact more and more top MBA colleges have started offering one year MBA to keep pace with Global MBA programs finding that the number of students opting for one year MBA programs are consistently rising. As such, this 1 year MBA channel presents Rankings, Fee, Placements, Admission criteria with application process for One Year MBA in India. We also clarify the difference between ‘One Year MBA’ Vs ‘Executive MBA’ in India. Both are NOT the same type of MBA programs.

But before reviewing Top 1 Year MBA colleges in India, let us first understand important details about this program – What is one year MBA, What is the difference between 1 Year MBA and Executive MBA, What are the type of colleges offering the program, who should apply for admission, which are the top MBA colleges offering one year MBA in India with fees, placements and admission cycle. Check Table of Contents below:   

Table of Contents

1. What is One Year MBA
2. One Year MBA in India Vs Executive MBA
3. Type of MBA Colleges Offering 1 Year Full Time MBA
4. Top 10 One Year MBA Colleges in India
5. One Year MBA Admission 2023: Application Cycles & Dates
6. Top One Year MBA Programs offered by IIMs
7. Top One Year MBA Equivalent Program offered by ISB
8. Top One Year MBA equivalent PGDM offered by AICTE B-schools & Universities
9. Comparison of 1 Year MBA Offered by IIMs, ISB, SPJIMR, XLRI: At a glance
10. Top One Year MBA Programs in India
11. One Year MBA in Delhi NCR
12. One Year MBA Admission Process in India
13. One Year MBA Colleges Fee
14. Part-time MBA for Working Professionals 

1. What is One Year MBA?
One year MBA is a Globally recognized MBA program. Many of the top B-Schools across the world offer 1 year MBA. One Year MBA is a full-time residential MBA program offered at a fast pace with most of the ingredients of two-year MBA. “IIM Bangalore’s one year full time EPGP program, leading to MBA degree, provides students with the same solid foundation in key management concepts and disciplines as a two-year MBA, with similar rigor, range of electives, and grading criteria.  A key advantage of the EPGP is that the course work builds on the diverse and extensive work experience of the students,” says IIM Bangalore.

Key Highlights of 1 Year MBA are

• The program is generally meant for candidates with work experience of 2 to 10 years
• Freshers are generally not encouraged to apply
• In most cases, one-year MBA fee is higher than the fees of two-year MBA.

2. One Year MBA in India Vs Executive MBA: Clearing the Confusion
Let’s understand the difference between One Year MBA and Executive MBA (EMBA). In US, Europe, China and Singapore EMBA is generally a modular, part-time program offered for senior executives who don’t wish to leave their well-paying full-time jobs for earning MBA credentials.  

  2.1 Executive MBA in India
Coming to India, there is some unwarranted confusion between these two programs. To clear the air, some historical perspective is useful. In 2001, like many European MBA programs, ISB Hyderabad launched its one-year full-time residential MBA equivalent program called Post Graduate Program (PGP). This required a mandatory work-experience of a few years, and thus aimed exclusively as working managers. Following its success, in 2006, IIM Ahmedabad launched its ‘Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives’, its one-year, full-time, residential programs popularly known as PGPX. IIM Calcutta too launched its ‘Post Graduate Programme for Executives’ or ‘PGPEX’. In 2009, IIM Bangalore launched ‘Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management’ or ‘EPGP’. Both IIMC’s PGPEX and IIMB’s EPGP were one-year, full-time, residential MBA Equivalent programs.

After passing of IIM Act 2017, now IIMs have started awarding Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree to the students of their one-year management program on its successful completion instead of the earlier diploma. Given that word ‘Executive’ is part of all 1-year MBA programs by IIMs and other top B-schools. Media and general public started calling these One Year MBA equivalent programs as Executive MBAs. Clearly, the one-year residential MBA programs by IIMs are NOT modular EMBA programs as known globally.  

This confusion was perhaps further compounded when AICTE, the management education regulator in India, permitted PGDM B-schools to offer ‘Executive PGDM’ – also a full-time residential 15-months MBA equivalent program. So XLRI offered PGDM (General Management) and MDI offered National management Programme and so on – all leading to ‘Executive PGDM’ or PGDM Executive. Today more than 25 B-schools are offering this program in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities. For better understanding, refer to this table below: 

2.2 One Year MBA Vs Executive MBA: Not the same

Source: MBAUniverse.com Analysis

Above table clarifies the difference between the two programs. With this clarification, let’s move forward to understand more about full time One Year MBA in India.

3. Type of MBA Colleges Offering 1 Year Full Time MBA
Coming back to One Year MBA in India, good news is that there are plenty of choices. We classify them into three types, below.

3.1 One Year MBA Colleges in India: Types of institutions

• One Year MBA by IIMs including IIMA, IIMB, IIMC, IIMK and others 
• ‘One Year PGPM/PGDM’ offered by AICTE approved top B-schools like XLRI, MDI, SPJIMR, Great Lakes and others
• One Year MBA equivalent program offered by ISB, Masters’ Union, SOIL and others

While all these three One Year MBAs may appear same, one closer analysis, you will notice many differences due to the positioning and target-audience of these programs. 

4. Top 10 One Year MBA Colleges in India
Top 1 Year MBA Colleges in India with Fees and Placements are:

Note: Top 1 Year MBA Colleges In India arranged as per Average Placements

5. One Year MBA Admission 2024: Application Cycles & Dates
Most of the top 1 year MBA colleges in India have 2-3 application cycles and last dates for 1 year MBA admission. The session in some Institutes offering One Year MBA In India commences academic session in April/May while in others it commences in July or September/October and the last dates to apply are as per the application cycles. Some of the top MBA colleges with one year MBA increase their application fee for each consecutive application round. To help the candidates to select the relevant academic session, we share below the 1 MBA application dates for admission 2024 separately. Read more.

5.1 Top 1 Year MBA colleges in India: Important Dates & Application Fees
Many top 1 year MBA colleges are open with their admission process while in a few the process is closed. Please diarise the important dates to apply for the one year MBA programme in top MBA colleges in India with application fee. Shared below are the important dates for 1 year MBA admission in top B-schools with application fees:

6. Top One Year MBA Programs offered by IIMs
IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Kozhikode are among the top one year MBA colleges  in India with high return on investment. Shared below are the details on program name, duration, eligibility, Fees, placement, academic session commencement date of 1 years MBA in IIMs

Source: MBAUniverse.com Analysis 

Read more about One Year MBA offered by IIMs

7. Top One Year MBA Equivalent Program offered by ISB
Indian School of Business (ISB) with campuses at Hyderabad and Mohali is the front runner in offering top one year MBA program in India. Key details on 1 year MBA program duration, eligibility, Fee, placement at ISB are as below:

Source: MBAUniverse.com Analysis   

  8. Top One Year MBA equivalent PGDM offered by

AICTE B-schools & Universities
Among the top 1 year MBA colleges in India are included AICTE approved top PGDM institutes offering one year MBA in India. Shared below are some of the top one year MBA colleges in India with program duration, eligibility, Fees, placement and month of session commencement. These are institutes offering one year PGDM which is awarded MBA equivalence and their 1 year MBA in India is in high demand.

Source: MBAUniverse.com Analysis

Read more about One Year MBA offered by AICTE B-schools & Universities.

9. Comparison of 1 Year MBA Offered by IIMs, ISB, SPJIMR, XLRI: At a glance
To summarize the difference between these three different types of one year MBA, check this table below.

Note: Data for only 6 institutions mentioned above used

10. Top One Year MBA Programs in India
Which are top One Year MBA programs in India? If you are looking for the best one-year MBA, please note that these 1 year MBA programs in India are offered by the one year MBA colleges in India as well as other top MBA colleges. The top one year MBA programs offered by ISB (1 year MBA is the flagship programme at ISB), IIMs, XLRI, Masters’ Union are the examples of some of the best one year MBA programmes in India. Read More

11. One Year MBA in Delhi NCR
One year MBA in Delhi NCR is offered by many top MBA colleges. Some of the top Management Institutes offering one year MBA in Delhi NCR include Masters’ Union Gurugram, MDI Gurgaon; IIM Lucknow-Noida campus; IMT Ghaziabad; IMI New Delhi; FORE School of Management New Delhi, LBSIM New Delhi among others. A list of the best institutes offering one year MBA in Delhi NCR is shared below:

12. One Year MBA Admission Process in India
The admission process for one-year full-time residential MBA in India requires minimum eligibility of a graduate degree along with professional or entrepreneurial experience of 5 years. Candidates are shortlisted on the basis of the qualifying test score such as GMAT/GRE & the overall profile of the candidate. After short listing various attributes such as personal interview, statement of purpose, written ability test and letter of recommendation are evaluated for final admission to the programme. Read more.

13. One Year MBA Colleges Fee
One Year MBA programs by ISB, IIMs, XLRI, SPJIMR, MDI, SOIL and other top B-schools are aimed at working professionals with 2-10 years of work experience. As 1 year MBA programs are full time residential programs with curriculum at par with 2 year MBA, the faculty associated with these programs is top notch.. Read more about One Year MBA Fee

14. Part-time MBA for Working Professionals 
While we have covered full time one-year MBA programs above, there are some of the best Part-time MBA options also. Check below

1. 3 Year Part-time MBA/PGDM Executive Programs by PGDM B-schools or by Universities: Many B-schools and Universities offer these three-year part-time programs in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and other cities. Read more. 
2. Distance MBA: Read all about Distance MBA programs in India. Read More