CUTTING THROUGH THE HYPE

AN ONLINE MBA PROGRAMME—EVEN FROM ONE OF THE IIMs—DOESN'T EXCITE RECRUITERS. WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR SUCH COURSES?

- BY MANOJ SHARMA

IT WAS ABOUT AN IIM. BUT THE FOCUS wasn't on the MBA course. When the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), one of the country's most-respected business schools, launched its hybrid MBA programme about a year ago, the news was splashed all over the tabloids. All the attention was not because it became relatively easier to get into IIMA, but because superstar Amitabh Bachchan's granddaughter Navya Naveli Nanda had enrolled into that programme. Today, the tabloids aren't bothered about Nanda's progress at IIMA, while online MBAs are losing sheen.

Online MBAs, however, were the flavour of the season a few years ago. When the pandemic forced campuses to shut down, most B-schools rushed into the online space. Overnight, every top B-school and many second-tier institutes were talking about blended degrees, synchronous studios, and “anytime, anywhere” MBAs. That rush has run into a hard market reality: recruiters favour full-time pedigree; short vocational courses are doing the heavy lifting for upskilling; and the real online MBA market is far smaller than many assumed. “Online doesn't work,” says Rajkamal Vempati, CHRO, Axis Bank. “It's [been] 27 years since I passed out from business school and the biggest skill I learnt was relationship skills—how to deal with people, how to work in a group and that will happen only in a physical place.”