Your online MBA institute · worldwide
Learn the MBA before you pay for one
The whole curriculum, open and free: 14 papers, 51 credits, four semesters — what each covers, what it is like to study alone, and which ones actually repay the effort. Then who can award you one, wherever you are.
IICT and IIPM have run this since 1997, with alumni in more than 30 countries. One fee for the whole qualification, two years or a one-year fast track, fully online, no entrance exam. It is an autonomous institute award rather than a university degree — we explain exactly what that means before you decide.
See the programme →Apply from anywhere →01 · The distinction everything turns on
Degree, diploma, certificate — three different instruments
They are not three grades of the same thing. They are awarded by different bodies under different rules, and which one you need depends on what you will do with it.
| A degree | A diploma | A certificate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who can award it | Only a university — open, state, central, private or deemed. | An autonomous institute, under its own name. | Anyone. There is no gate at all. |
| What governs it | UGC entitlement, plus DEB recognition if it is taught at a distance. | The institute’s own standing. Nothing else. | Nothing. |
| When you specifically need it | Government recruitment, PhD admission, any rule that names a degree. | When the institute’s name is worth more than the category. | When you want the skill and nobody is checking. |
| The precedent worth knowing | — | The IIMs awarded a diploma, not a degree, until 2017. A diploma is a different instrument, not automatically a lesser one. | — |
| On this site | 32 universities across four tiers. | 259 PGDM institutes, plus ours. | Not listed. There is nothing to check. |
02 · Who can award you one
The register, 337 deep
Grouped by what each is empowered to award — which is the thing that decides whether the qualification holds up.
Every institution on this site, grouped by statutory standing. The grouping is a legal fact, not our opinion — and it is the fact that decides whether what you are awarded is a degree.
The numbers
| Tier | Institutions | Share | What it awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| PGDM institutes | 259 | 76.9% | Its own diploma |
| Institutes of National Importance | 24 | 7.1% | Certificates and diplomas, usually |
| Autonomous colleges | 22 | 6.5% | A degree of its affiliating university |
| Open universities | 19 | 5.6% | A university degree under its own name |
| State universities | 10 | 3.0% | A university degree under its own name |
| Deemed universities | 3 | 0.9% | A university degree under its own name |
Counted from the AISHE register. Total 337.
331 of the 337 record a state. Three states hold more than 43% of them between them — which matters only if you ever have to sit an examination in person.
The numbers
| State or union territory | Institutions | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Maharashtra | 67 | 20.2% |
| Uttar Pradesh | 38 | 11.5% |
| Madhya Pradesh | 37 | 11.2% |
| Karnataka | 27 | 8.2% |
| Telangana | 20 | 6.0% |
| Delhi | 19 | 5.7% |
| West Bengal | 16 | 4.8% |
| Odisha | 15 | 4.5% |
| Gujarat | 10 | 3.0% |
| Tamil Nadu | 10 | 3.0% |
| Kerala | 9 | 2.7% |
| Haryana | 9 | 2.7% |
| Rajasthan | 9 | 2.7% |
| Andhra Pradesh | 8 | 2.4% |
| Bihar | 6 | 1.8% |
| Chhattisgarh | 6 | 1.8% |
| Uttarakhand | 5 | 1.5% |
| Jharkhand | 5 | 1.5% |
| Punjab | 3 | 0.9% |
| Assam | 2 | 0.6% |
| Himachal Pradesh | 2 | 0.6% |
| Chandigarh | 2 | 0.6% |
| Goa | 1 | 0.3% |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 1 | 0.3% |
| Meghalaya | 1 | 0.3% |
| Tripura | 1 | 0.3% |
| Nagaland | 1 | 0.3% |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 1 | 0.3% |
All 28 with at least one institution on the register.
03 · What you would study
The core is the same wherever you go
14 papers, 51 credits, four semesters. Every paper below is written up in full — free, and without asking you for anything.
The load is heavily front-loaded. Semester one alone is more than a third of the degree, and the last two semesters together are less than semester two — which is why people who drop out drop out early.
6 papersSem 2
5 papersSem 3
2 papersSem 4
1 paper
The numbers
| Semester | Papers | Credits | Share of the degree |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semester 1 | 6 | 21 | 41% |
| Semester 2 | 5 | 17 | 33% |
| Semester 3 | 2 | 7 | 14% |
| Semester 4 | 1 | 6 | 12% |
51 credits across 14 papers. One credit is roughly 30 hours of work; how that is counted.
04 · Specialisation streams
Where programmes actually differ
The core is broadly identical everywhere. The specialisation papers are where universities genuinely diverge, and where syllabus currency matters most.
05 · What it costs
Three fee territories, and one honest summary of each
Nobody publishes a defensible ranking of teaching quality, so price is the variable you can actually check. Here is the shape of the market.
Three fee territories, and the honest summary of each. Under a lakh they are broadly the same thing; between one and two you are buying delivery, not curriculum; above two you are buying a brand.
The numbers
| Fee territory | What you are actually buying | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Under ₹1 lakh | The curriculum and the credential. | Live teaching is thin almost everywhere in this band. |
| ₹1–2 lakh | Delivery — cohorts, live sessions, support, placement machinery. | The syllabus is broadly the one on this site. |
| Above ₹2 lakh | A brand, and the network that comes with it. | Judge whether the network is real before paying for it. |
| Ours — US$400 (₹32,350) | The full curriculum and an autonomous institute award. | It is not a UGC-entitled university degree. We set out when that matters. |
Bands are indicative of the market, not verified per-institution fees. Always ask for the total in writing before you pay — the five questions are here.
06 · Questions people actually ask
The eight that decide it
Is an online MBA worth doing at all?
Is a PGDM the same as an MBA?
Do I need UGC-DEB approval?
How long does it really take?
Can I do this from outside India?
What should an online MBA cost?
Is there an entrance exam?
Why do you publish the whole syllabus for free?
07 · From outside India
The same qualification, four orders of magnitude apart
Everything above this line is the Indian register. If you are reading from Lagos, Nairobi, Dubai or Riyadh, the questions change — and so does the arithmetic.
We have mapped the body that assesses a foreign qualification in 104 countries — 33 across Africa and 13 across the Middle East — what the process is called in each, how our 51 credits convert into ECTS, CATS and US semester hours — including where that comparison does not flatter us — and what an MBA costs everywhere else.