In India, no student looks beyond an IIM for graduating in an MBA program. It’s a golden opportunity for students in India.   The first IIM was founded in Calcutta and Ahmadabad in the year 1961 and then in Bangalore in 1973.  There are 13 institutes all over India today.

Competition for the IIMs came in the form of the Indian School of Business (ISB) which was started in Hyderabad in the year 2001.  It is one year program with the minimum 2 years of work experience.  The average work experience is five years for MBA Degree.  ISB’s approach became very popular and their class size has grown to more than 700 a year.  Soon the IIMs started copying this approach and came up with their own one-year programs, first in Ahmadabad and then in Bangalore, Indore, Calcutta and Lucknow.

Here is the graph stating the growth of engineering and management institutions in India.

With 3,500 engineering colleges and 2,500 B-schools, India has large number of institutes, indicating high value Indians place of job-oriented, professional programs with social prestige.

Internationally, most MBAs other than USA are a one-year program. Examples are the INSEAD in France, the IMD in Switzerland and IE in Spain.   Three of the top 20 American B-Schools offer a

One-year program along with their existing two-year programs.

Indian students in a one-year program have more work experience.  GMAT scores by Indian students are as competitive as their international counterparts.  Students with an engineering background are far higher than people from other streams.

While the fees for a one-year program in India would cost approximately 24 Lakhs, it is close to thrice the same amount abroad.  The one-year program attracts a lot of NRIs who wish to move back to India or who wish to continue to live abroad, but who wish to take advantage of the lower costs in India.

While  American  and  European  MBAs  have  a  large  population  of  international  students,  Indian courses have a very negligible amount of foreign students.

The IIMs and Indian B-Schools do not guarantee placement, but they do provide a lot of support to the students for placement opportunities. Their aim is to provide an academic experience of international standards.

Salaries for graduates from the IIMs or the other Indian B-schools vary from year to year, depending on market conditions and the quality of the students that graduate.   96% of the students of this year’s  IIM   Bangalore  EPGP  program  found  placements  with  an  increase  in  their  position, remuneration, roles and responsibilities.

The programs, faculty and facilities that are provided by Indian B-schools are competitive and can be compared with the best in the world, at half of the cost.  It is up to the students to decide what they want to accomplish in their lives and what their goals are, before deciding on an Indian MBA program or an international one.  If students just want an international degree so that it would look good on their CVs, then going abroad might not be a good idea.  But if they want to challenge themselves intellectually and have a life-changing experience, then applying for an international MBA program is way to go.