One year MBA in India: Colleges, Courses, Fees, Admissions

One year MBA is a Globally recognized MBA program. Many of the top B-Schools across the world offer 1 year MBA. One Year MBA is a full-time residential MBA program offered at a fast pace with most of the ingredients of two-year MBA. “IIM Bangalore’s one-year full time EPGP program, leading to MBA degree, provides students with the same solid foundation in key management concepts and disciplines as a two-year MBA, with similar rigor, range of electives, and grading criteria. A key advantage of the EPGP is that the course work builds on the diverse and extensive work experience of the students,” says IIM Bangalore. Speaking about the objectives of IIM Kozhikode One Year MBA program PGP-BL, Prof. Debashis Chatterjee Director, IIM Kozhikode, said, “In today's volatile, interconnected, and complex world, businesses require visionary leaders who can not only sustain but also thrive. This leadership programme is meticulously designed to bridge that gap, transforming experienced professionals into high-potential leaders. Our programme cultivates leaders who are authentic, highly capable, multidimensional, and deeply grounded in core values.” 

Key Highlights of 1 Year MBA are

• In most cases, one-year MBA program is a Full Time Residential Program and NOT a part-time/online program.
• One Year MBA is meant for candidates with work experience of 2 to 10 years. Freshers are not encouraged to apply.
• In most cases, one-year MBA fee is higher than the fees of two-year MBA.

Let’s understand the difference between One Year MBA and Executive MBA (EMBA). In US, Europe, China and Singapore EMBA is generally a modular, part-time program offered for senior executives who don’t wish to leave their well-paying full-time jobs for earning MBA credentials

Executive MBA in India
Coming to India, there is some unwarranted confusion between these two programs. To clear the air, some historical perspective is useful. In 2001, like many European MBA programs, ISB Hyderabad launched its one-year full-time residential MBA equivalent program called Post Graduate Program (PGP). This required a mandatory work-experience of a few years, and thus aimed exclusively as working managers. Following its success, in 2006, IIM Ahmedabad launched its ‘Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives’, its one-year, full-time, residential programs popularly known as PGPX. IIM Calcutta too launched its ‘Post Graduate Programme for Executives’ or ‘PGPEX’. In 2009, IIM Bangalore launched ‘Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management’ or ‘EPGP’. Both IIMC’s PGPEX and IIMB’s EPGP were one-year, full-time, residential MBA Equivalent programs.

After passing of IIM Act 2017, now IIMs have started awarding Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree to the students of their one-year management program on its successful completion instead of the earlier diploma. Given that word ‘Executive’ is part of all 1-year MBA programs by IIMs and other top B-schools. Media and general public started calling these One Year MBA equivalent programs as Executive MBAs. Clearly, the one-year residential MBA programs by IIMs are NOT modular EMBA programs as known globally.  

This confusion was perhaps further compounded when AICTE, the management education regulator in India, permitted PGDM B-schools to offer ‘Executive PGDM’ – also a full-time residential 15-months MBA equivalent program. So XLRI offered PGDM (General Management) and MDI offered National management Programme and so on – all leading to ‘Executive PGDM’ or PGDM Executive. Today more than 25 B-schools are offering this program in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities. For better understanding, refer to this table below: 

One Year MBA Vs Executive MBA: Not the same

Source: MBAUniverse.com Analysis

Above table clarifies the difference between the two programs. With this clarification, let’s move forward to understand more about full time One Year MBA in India.

Coming back to One Year MBA in India, good news is that there are plenty of choices. We classify them into three types, below.

One Year MBA Colleges in India: Types of institutions

• One Year MBA by IIMs including IIMA, IIMB, IIMC, IIMK and others
• One Year MBA by top B-schools like XLRI, MDI, SPJIMR, Great Lakes and others
• 1 Year MBA equivalent program offered by ISB, Masters’ Union, SOIL and others

While all these three One Year MBAs may appear same, one closer analysis, you will notice many differences due to the positioning and target-audience of these programs. 

Top 1 Year MBA Colleges in India with are:

Unlike Rankings for 2-year MBA programs, a well-accepted ranking for one year MBA program is not available. Only a few reputed publications like Financial Times London release one year MBA Rankings in India. Below are 1 year MBA ranking in India published by Financial Times. FT MBA Rankings 2024, which ranks post-experience MBA equivalent programs only, has ranked only four such programs from India. See table 1 below: 

The session in most IIMs and ISB in April/May, but in some others, it commences in July or August. Accordingly, the 1 Year MBA Admission process is designed, and admission deadlines are announced. Most of the top 1 year MBA colleges in India have 2-3 application cycles for admissions. One Year MBA Eligibility includes work experience between 3-7 years, apart from a bachelor’s degree. Read more.

Best 1 Year MBA colleges in India: Important Dates
Please check the important dates to apply for the one year MBA programme in top MBA colleges in India with application fee. 

Best 1 Year MBA colleges in India: Important Dates
Please check the important dates to apply for the one year MBA programme in top MBA colleges in India with application fee. 

Read complete details for One Year MBA Admission.

IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Kozhikode are among the top one year MBA colleges  in India with high return on investment. Shared below are the details on program name, duration, eligibility, Fees, placement, academic session commencement date of 1 years MBA in IIMs

Source: MBAUniverse.com Analysis 

Read more about One Year MBA offered by IIMs

Indian School of Business (ISB) with campuses at Hyderabad and Mohali is the front runner in offering top one year MBA program in India. Key details on 1 year MBA program duration, eligibility, Fee, placement at ISB are as below:

Source: MBAUniverse.com Analysis  

Among the best One Year MBA Colleges in India are AICTE approved top PGDM institutes offering one year MBA in India. Shared below are some of the top one year MBA colleges in India with program duration, eligibility, Fees, placement and month of session commencement. These are institutes offering one year PGDM which is awarded MBA equivalence and their 1 year MBA in India is in high demand.

Source: MBAUniverse.com Analysis

Read more about One Year MBA offered by AICTE B-schools & Universities.

To summarize the difference between these three different types of one year MBA, check this table below.

Note: Data is based on only 6 institutions, mentioned above. 

Which are top One Year MBA programs in India? If you are looking for the best one-year MBA, please note that these 1 year MBA programs in India are offered by different types of MBA colleges. The top programs are offered by ISB (1 year MBA is the flagship programme at ISB), IIMs, XLRI and MDI Gurgaon. 

1 Year MBA in Delhi NCR is offered by many top MBA colleges. Some of the top Management Institutes offering this program in Delhi NCR include MDI Gurgaon; IIM Lucknow-Noida campus; IMT Ghaziabad; IMI New Delhi among others. A list of the best institutes offering this programs in Delhi NCR is shared below:

The admission process for one-year full-time residential MBA in India requires minimum eligibility of a graduate degree along with professional or entrepreneurial experience of 5 years. Candidates are shortlisted on the basis of the qualifying test score such as GMAT/GRE & the overall profile of the candidate. After short listing various attributes such as personal interview, statement of purpose, written ability test and letter of recommendation are evaluated for final admission to the programme. Read complete details about One Year MBA Admission. 

This program is aimed at working professionals with 2-10 years of work experience. As 1 year MBA programs are full time residential programs with curriculum at par with 2 year MBA, the faculty associated with these programs is top notch. Check One Year MBA Colleges Fee. 

Read more about One Year MBA Fee.

In summary, this article provides accurate information about One Year MBA in India offered by ISB Hyderabad, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Kozhikode, XLRI Jamshedpur, SPJIMR Mumbai, MDI Gurgaon… We hope you found the information useful. Also check links to more detailed articles below.