Degree or diploma?
The most consequential distinction in Indian management education, and the one most often blurred by the people selling it to you.
The difference in one line
A university awards a degree. An autonomous institute awards its own diploma. An MBA is a degree. A PGDM is a diploma. They can sit at the same academic level and cover the same syllabus, and neither is automatically the lesser thing — the IIMs awarded PGDMs until the IIM Act of 2017.
Where it matters
It matters wherever a written rule names a qualification. Government recruitment, PhD admission, and some corporate promotion policies specify a degree. A diploma may still satisfy them, but usually only with AIU equivalence granted for that specific programme — which is an extra document you would rather not be hunting for at a verification desk.
Where it does not matter
Private-sector hiring generally reads the institution, not the award type. A PGDM from a well-regarded institute will beat a degree from an unknown one in almost every interview room in the country.
How to decide
Ask what the qualification has to survive. If it has to survive a rulebook, take the degree. If it has to survive an interview, take whichever institution is better at teaching you. See how each route grades →
IICT and IIPM, Lucknow — the two we do not grade
These are partner institutions of this network, so we do not grade them. We can still tell you exactly what they are, which is more than a grade would.
IICT — Indian Institute of Commerce and Trade
IICT Business School, Lucknow — usually written IICT Lucknow — has run autonomous management programmes for over 30 years. The IICT MBA is a two-year programme across 30+ specialisations, taught by distance and online, with admission by profile review rather than an entrance test. The complete fee is ₹32,350, paid to the institute directly against a receipt.
IIPM — Indian Institute of Pharmaceutical Marketing
IIPM Lucknow specialises in pharmaceutical marketing and pharma business management — sector-specific management education that university syllabi rarely cover. The IIPM MBA runs on the same autonomous model and the same complete fee of ₹32,350.
They award an autonomous institute qualification, not a university degree. Everything on this site about that distinction applies to them too — we have simply kept them out of the grades rather than mark our own homework.