Answer: There are various universities offering MBA through distance education but distance learning is a course which may add to your knowledge base. And it is an additional CV point but a weak one. A full time MBA always has the most value. If that is not possible, a part-time course with some classroom contact is desirable over a 100 per cent correspondence course. For Distance learning, you need to keep it mind that it would not give you same "value add" as a full time course (1 yr/2 yr)
In MBA the learning that a person gets it broadly from:
1) Book / study material
2) Peer group learning
In a distance learning programme what someone misses out is point no 2 i.e. Peer group learning.
Also as far as i know, most of these courses offered by top institutes are "Certificate courses" unlike their flagship course (read full time MBA course) which are Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) in case of IIMs or MBA( in case of university affiliated courses)
Because of this their "market value" isn't at par with the regular course of the respective institutes. So in the employment market MBA regular carries more weight-age.
Going by my experience, this is one big "value add" during Full time MBA. Its not only adds on to the knowledge that you get from books but it enhances it many times!!
MBA is not offered by correspondence for students who have just completed their graduation (except Manipal University and ICFAI University). There are the only two institutes that offer a Masters degree. Others like Symbiosis, NIBM, IMT, Xaviers, Welingkar, etc offer a PGD only. Further, open universities like IGNOU, KSOU, etc demand a minimum of 3 years work experience to offer an MBA.
So if you still want to go for MBA through distance learning you should go in for a degree course rather than PGDBM or just go for a regular course.
Hope that helps
CareerAge Counselor |