The Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) is a degree course offered by the colleges affiliated to the universities while the PGDM is a diploma course offered by the institutes that are recognised by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Even the prestigious IIMs offer PGDM and not MBA as they are not part of any university. PGDM is offered by an autonomous institute wherein it should be approved by AICTE . Since institutes secure autonomy they design their own curriculum, which is based on contemporary/future industry requirements . Even IIMs and XLRI’s don’t offer MBA degrees. They give only PGDM since they are autonomous and independent bodies. Typically if any PGDM is to be equivalent to MBA then the college offering the PGDM course must have accreditation from AIU

Accreditation is the process of quality assurance to verify whether it meets the laid down norms and standards. In a typical B-School the norms are spelled out in terms of numbers required for basic infrastructure like land, building, number of books, journals, computers and software requirements , faculty number and qualification is also prescribed. An institution which fulfils the norms laid down by the approving agency gets approved for the programme conducted by the institution. But the accreditation goes much beyond the norms. In most of the cases the accreditation is voluntary. It enables them to know the quality of their programmes and their advantages and disadvantages.

There is no difference between MBA (Masters in Business Administration) & PGDM (Post Graduation Diploma in Management). These are more or less same management degree courses offered under the different tag by different institutions.

As per the law in India, only a university can offer courses like B.E. B.Tech and MBA. At the end of MBA students receives a degree whereas after a PGP/PGDM course students receives a diploma. If you are wondering that MBA is better than let me remind you the best colleges for management in India like IIMs, XLRi Jamshedpur, S.P. Jain offers a PGDM/PGP course. Most of these institutes are autonomous bodies (not affiliated to any University) and conducts their own management course.

MBA courses focus more on theoretical and technical aspects of management rather than adopting a practical approach. PGP or PGDM courses have an industrial orientation and focus on skills based on market requirements.

It has been observed that most MBA courses have lower tuition fees as compared to PGP or PGDM courses. This may be so because mostly government approved universities offer MBA degrees. These universities receive financial aid and grants from the government, making the degree cheaper for the student (FMS which falls under Delhi University is best in terms of ROI with INR 20K fees for 2 years and an average package of INR 20.5 lakhs per annum). In case of a PGP or PGDM degree, students have to bear the cost of the entire programme. However, this is not an ironclad rule. There are MBA degrees which charge high tuition fees (such as IIFT).

For your information, there is no separate exam conducted for MBA/PGDM/PGP course because all depends on college to give admission on which type of exam marks and offer a which type of degree.

hi pankaj

according to me , it's a myth that PGDM is not equivalent to MBA , actually the difference is that MBA is a degree and PGDM is kind of diploma but the syllabus and content is almost same so o need to worry in that case because PGDM and MBA is equal , and now a days most of the colleges are providing PGDM so if you getting good college so go for it .

good luck

thank you