AICTE 70-30 MBA: Where startup success counts more than exams

AHMEDABAD: There are numerous examples of successful startup founders who had to discontinue their studies in order to pursue their ventures because they found the conventional education model restrictive.
To address the issue and groom aspiring entrepreneurs, the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is expanding its novel master's degree in business administration (MBA)/PG diploma in management course where students' startup performance constitutes 70% of their evaluation with only 30% based on classroom activities.

Senior AICTE officials met this week to deliberate on scaling up the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Venture Development (IEV) course from this academic year by incorporating the lessons learned amid the rapidly changing startup landscape in India.
Prof T G Sitharam, chairman of AICTE told TOI that the course was initially launched in 2019 in some institutions. However, Covid disrupted its momentum.
Currently offered at 25 institutions nationwide — including Gujarat's Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) and Gujarat Technological University — the initiative aims to strengthen India's position as the world's third-largest startup ecosystem.
"Today we have the third largest startup ecosystem, and the course aims to augment it by providing a theoretical foundation to startup activities. However, the focus is on learning by doing. We will integrate the learnings from the past few years into the course by expanding it. We also intend to start short-duration courses with premier institutes such as IITs for deep-tech startups," Prof T G Sitharam, chairman of AICTE said.
The other institutes that are part of the initiative include Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur; MS Ramaiah Institute of Management, Bengaluru; Delhi Technological University; and Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore.
"The idea is to provide a flexible course that can serve the purpose of strengthening the startup ecosystem by training founders in aspects such as pitching, funding, partnership deeds, legal compliance, logistics operations and so on," said Dipan Kumar Sahu, assistant director of innovation cell at the ministry of education. He was part of the three-day deliberation on the course at iHub.
"Several international institutions such as Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are successfully running such courses," he said.
Emphasising the flexibility of the course, Srinivas Chidumalla, an industry representative and an alumnus of MIT and IIT, said, "The students will have a chance to earn their degree without waiting for two years to start out."
"When startup mortality is high, not all succeed despite their best effort. So, if a course participant succeeds, then the venture becomes a badge of honour for them. If not, then too they would have gained valuable insights for future ecosystem contributions," said Hiranmay Mahanta, CEO of iHub.
Bhumika Aggarwal, a student of MBA at EDII and founder of UrBot startup, said that for an up-and-coming venture, both worldly experience and theoretical knowledge are required. "The combination of practical application of theories and a collaborative learning experience creates a synergy which is rarely possible in conventional MBA classrooms," she said.