IGNOU
The Indira Gandhi [Images] National Open University is one of India's premier institutes for distance education courses. It conducts two kinds of correspondence MBA courses: one general and one specially meant for the banking sector.
For the first course, a student is expected to study all 11 courses conducted in IGNOU's Post Graduate Diploma in Management (which vary from Information Systems to Marketing to Accounting). Following this the student must complete five courses form one of the specialisation streams, which are: Human Resources Management, Financial Management, Operations Management and Marketing Management.
A student must do a course in Advance Strategic Management and Research Methodology for Management Decisions. One is also expected to do an elective course from one of five subjects. A project must be completed, which gains the same credits as two courses.
This course cost Rs 800 each, which includes examination fee. Admissions to the programme are done on the basis of the OPENMAT Entrance Exam, conducted twice a year.
Candidates are eligible if they have a Bachelor's Degree with three years of work experience or a professional degree (Engineering/ Medicine etc) or a Professional Qualification in Accountancy/ Cost and Works Accountancy etc or a Masters Degree.
The Master of Business Administration (Banking and Finance) was launched following an MOU between IGNOU and the Indian Institute of Bankers, specifically for IIB members. In order to be eligible, a candidate must be a graduate of a recognised university, have passed the CAIIB examination of the Indian Institute of Bankers, Mumbai, have worked in the banking or financial services sector for a period of at least two years and be a member of the Indian Institute of Bankers, Mumbai. The fees are Rs 600 per subject.
Address: School of Management Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi [Images] 110068
Phone: (011) 29532073
Fax: (011) 29532078
Email: mba@ignou.ac.in
Website: http://www.ignou.ac.in/
Symbiosis
The Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning is Symbiosis's attempt at creating a 'World Campus' where everyone is able to learn and achieve his or her dream. SCDL has its headquarters at Symbiosis's Pune Campus and also has study centres in Nashik and Bangalore.
In order to sidestep government regulations, SCDL does not offer an MBA directly: it offers a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration. The first two semesters are common for all students, while the last two semesters require the student to specialise in one of five streams: Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Operations or Customer Relationship Management.
The duration of the programme is two years. However, registration to the programme is valid for four years.
An interesting aspect of SCDL is its' corporate programme. Under the C-PGDBA, one can receive a fast track PGDBA: the course lasts merely three semesters -- or 18 months -- unlike the normal course, which lasts four semesters (two years). Under this programme, SDCL and your company agree to conduct courses at your corporate premises themselves. There are faculty lectures every week and batches must have a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 40 students.
This course is not available to individual students, so if you're interested you'll have to contact you HR/ Training Coordinator. One person from HR or Training will act as a point contact between your company and SDCL. Some of the companies that have registered for this programme are Intel, HP, IBM Dhaksh, Xansa and Aztec -- besides many others. C-PGDBA also offers specialisation in Information Technology in addition to al those available under the normal PGDBA.
A person is eligible for the programme if they are graduates from a recognised university or if they hold a diploma from a recognised polytechnic institute, with five years of supervised work experience.
Address: Symbiosis Bhavan, 1065-B Gokhale Cross Road, Model Colony, Pune-16.
Phone: (020) 66211000-6
Fax: (020) 66211040/41
Website: www.scdl.net
NMIMS
The School of Distance Learning is a branch of SVKM's NMIMS University. NMIMS provides Post Graduate Diplomas, rather than MBA, like most of the institutes on this list.
A candidate is eligible for a Post Graduate diploma if he or she has a Bachelors Degree from any recognised university or equivalent degree with either 50 per cent or two years of work experience. A student who holds a degree from the NMIMS can enter the second year of a diploma laterally.
One can do a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management, Marketing Management, Financial Management or Human Resources Management. The courses for the first semesters are the same across streams but specialisation kicks in during the second semester itself.
All of the NMIMS PG programmes are approved by the Distance Education Council of India, IGNOU. NMIMS has 15 study centres across in India, including Kolkatta, Bangalore, Mumbai, two in New Delhi etc.
The fees for the course are Rs 18,000 for the first year and Rs 16,600 for the second.
Be wary while choosing NM over other courses. While the NMIMS has high prestige value, it may not be what it seems. "The study material provided by NM is exactly the same as that provided by IGNOU, who provides it for much less," says one customer, "I feel duped." Whether it's IGNOU that passes NM's material off as it's own or vice-versa is uncertain.
PHONE:(022)2613 4577/2618 3688
FAX:(022) 2611 4512
ADDRESS:The School of Distance Learning, SVKM's NIMIMS University, VL Mehta Road,Vile Parle(W),MUMBAI-56
WEBSITES:http://www.nmimsonline.org and http://www.nmims.edu/
ICFAI
The ICFAI University conducts one of India's premier MBA courses. To be eligible, one must be a graduate of any discipline with 45 per cent. Students with certain prior qualifications are entitled to waivers from certain subjects eg students with an MA in Economics needn't do Business Economics.
The degree is divided in three stages: subjects are common for all students during stages 1 and 2. Half of stage 3 consists of elective subjects (there are 10 in total and students are expected to do four of them).
The ICFAI has tied up with Cygnus and offers internships to distance students to allow them to gain the experience that usually comes only with full-time MBA programmes. Students may approach Cygnus after their second stage -- the internships will be in Hyderabad and fees must be paid separately. The ICFAI has also tied up with Alchemist HR Services to provide placements to students.
Training classes are conducted four times a year, usually during the weekends or evenings. The fees for the programme are Rs 30,000, without training classes. With training classes, fees rise to Rs 45,000.
Address: The ICFAI University, C-1/103, Indiranagar, Dehradun 248006, Uttarakhand [Images]
Website: http://www.icfaiuniversity.org
SOURCE: rediff
Sunday, October 12, 2008
THE ROLE OF ETHICS IN BUSINESS
1. Ethics was first introduced as a component of Business law at UTS in 2000. The primary driver of this expanded content and subject agenda was the need to respond to the social and economic impacts of the growing number of cases of corporate mismanagement.
2. At UTS, we took seriously our obligation to ensure that tomorrow's corporate leaders receive within their tertiary education an understanding of the following:
that leadership is a privilege bestowed within a context of trust;
that the relationship is reciprocal ie. that the privilege of leadership imposes obligations such as :
a. the obligation to strike an appropriate balance between stakeholder interests and self interest
b. the obligation to treat the large pool of financial resources generated by corporate activity as the resources of others and utilize those resources in the best interests of those others;
c. the obligation to steer the corporation as a Captain steers a ship ie. just as the Captain uses the lifeboat only after the last passenger is safe so too the leader/s of a company in decline allocates company resources according to stakeholder interest rather than self interest.
d. So, what do we seek to impart to students about the public expectations of a corporate leader and how do we go about the business of transmitting these messages to the students? My paper last year put forward the argument about why I believe that it is preferable to teach ethics an integrated component of a core law subject in a cross-disciplinary course such as the Business Law subject. For me it is to
discourage disjointed decision-making where issues are compartmentalised and dealt with one at a time;
avoid the possibility that the subject be seen as an abstract intellectual exercise with no real relevance to professional education.
to acknowledge the reality that socialization will naturally occur and to socialise students into a culture where moral considerations are seen as central to the 'nuts and bolts' issues of commerce.[2] Despite the frequently raised objection to the idea that education serves as a socializing medium, the decision to actively seek to socialise students through the teaching of ethics was based on a belief that those who object to educational socialisation fail to acknowledge the reality that socialization will naturally occur as part of the educational process. Therefore, the question is not whether education should or should not socialise but rather it should be about the values our educational institutions should or should not endorse.
to encourage the pursuit of consensus about fundamental values and the pursuit of understanding about the beliefs of others
to develop an understanding of the cause and effect link between commercial sector failure and government regulation and demonstrate that 'good ethics is good business' principle is made easier
3. Edited reading materials containing a carefully selected mix of theoretical extracts and current journal and newspaper articles have been designed to expose the students to a variety of arguments that challenge beliefs and extend the boundaries of learned behaviour beyond childhood and pre-adult experiences. Thus, students are encouraged to develop an understanding that ethical principles do not come in neat packages - one set for business and another for one's private activities - as well as to appreciate the nature of the complexities that render the learning of childhood and adolescence, insufficient for corporate decision making.
4. As part of the preparation to deal with the problems commonly encountered by business leaders, the readings have been selected with a view to providing a broad range of topics covering some of the more pressing contemporary issues. These include the cost of environmental vandalism and urban decay; the nature of the values generated by competitiveness and the social impact of the behaviours it rewards; the positive and negative features of globalisation; balancing work and family commitments, industrial regulation of a diverse work force, and responsible management of scarce resources. These topics are addressed within the context of their importance in relation to what has been identified by the author of this paper as ten responsibilities of corporate and commercial professionals:
a.to appreciate the breadth of the corporate role ie. that it extends well beyond profit maximisation;
b.to engage in debate about values and application of judgment;
c.to see business and management education as a moral endeavour rather than just the transfer of skills and knowledge;
d.to deal satisfactorily with increasingly pressing global pressures without compromising local established cultural values;
e.to develop the capacity to recognise and articulate the ethical dimension of managerial decisions and to develop an appreciation for the legitimate place ethical discourse has in business;
to understand that the separation of commercial activities from community concerns is a divide that is not in the best long term interest of a business;
g.to explore the systemic causes and consequences of unethical behaviour;
h.to identify opportunities to contribute to the broader community;
i.to identify the indicators of poor leadership;
j.to understand how absence of vision, insufficiency or inconsistency of values, 5.inability to distinguish between power and authority and a preoccupation with self interest lead to disabling outcomes such as workplace morale deficits, loss of organisational and individual purpose, decline in production and profits, diminished trust and erosion of legitimacy.
6. The materials expose students to a diverse range of moral beliefs and viewpoints, which they can apply to solving hypothetical dilemmas that arise out of the procedurally oriented legal content of the business law component of the subject.
The success the BLethics team has enjoyed since its introduction is very satisfying because it confirms that the team is fulfilling what we believe to be our primary aim as educators. Responsible universities have an obligation to develop something more in students than profit making acumen. As succinctly pointed out by former Harvard President Derek Bok, a responsible university has a basic obligation to society
...which it violates by refus[ing] to take ethical dilemmas seriously. And a university that fails to engage its members in a debate on these issues and to communicate with care, the reason for its policies gives an impression of moral indifference that is profoundly dispiriting to large numbers of students and professors who share a concern for social issues and a desire to have their institutions behave responsibly.[3]
7. In other words, the university must assume a significant share of responsibility for the way the corporate sector operates and its leaders behave. This requires students to develop an understanding of the way that commercial sector failure, which arises out of impropriety, prompts the government regulation. As Daniel Vogel points out "...new scandals often lead to the establishment of a new statute, regulation or regulatory agency.[4]
8. The response from the students to the idea that ethics has an important place in the business curriculum and to the requirement that they must engage in open and reflective discussion of moral issues, has been positive. The resistance that one expects when sacred beliefs and values are challenged has been surprisingly minimal. This is partly due to the fact that the need to provide for dealing with student resistance to the entire exercise of teaching and being taught ethics was acknowledged in the developmental stages of the subject content. Ruth Macklin's work on pluralism and indoctrination was seen as very valuable in this regard. She suggests that resistance arises out of a tension produced by conflicting obligations imposed on ethics teachers in societies where pluralism is highly valued. Firstly, there is the realization of a need to avoid the possibility of undermining the plurality of values on which our community is based and thereby failing to fulfil the obligation to be tolerant of a variety of moral beliefs. Secondly, the positive obligation to promote the diversity of views and moral convictions housed in a pluralistic culture cannot be fulfilled in circumstances where there is a contrary requirement to impose models of moral convictions and ethical positions.[5]
Those students, who could be described as falling into the resistant category, have responded well in workshop discussions of the issues raised in the readings, all of which have been designed to expose them to counter-arguments presented in an non-threatening way throughout the carefully selected and edited reading materials. The real value of this approach is that it does not exert pressure to change from entrenched viewpoints, particularly those arising out of religious influences. Rather, it acknowledges what Lisman describes as ...providing [students] with an understanding of opposing viewpoints [which]...might eventually result in their coming around to a more moderate way of looking at issues.[6] It also focuses on the five general goals recommended by Callahan for teaching ethics - stimulating the moral imagination; recognizing ethical issues; eliciting a sense of moral obligation; developing analytical skills[7] and promoting a tolerance of disagreement and ambiguity - while it minimises the possibility that students will feel pressured to change fundamental beliefs and developed behaviours.
8. Its success is evident in the high level of student engagement in discussion of the moral issues associated with commercial activity and the clear willingness of the students to probe into the more difficult dilemmas that arise for corporate leaders.
2. At UTS, we took seriously our obligation to ensure that tomorrow's corporate leaders receive within their tertiary education an understanding of the following:
that leadership is a privilege bestowed within a context of trust;
that the relationship is reciprocal ie. that the privilege of leadership imposes obligations such as :
a. the obligation to strike an appropriate balance between stakeholder interests and self interest
b. the obligation to treat the large pool of financial resources generated by corporate activity as the resources of others and utilize those resources in the best interests of those others;
c. the obligation to steer the corporation as a Captain steers a ship ie. just as the Captain uses the lifeboat only after the last passenger is safe so too the leader/s of a company in decline allocates company resources according to stakeholder interest rather than self interest.
d. So, what do we seek to impart to students about the public expectations of a corporate leader and how do we go about the business of transmitting these messages to the students? My paper last year put forward the argument about why I believe that it is preferable to teach ethics an integrated component of a core law subject in a cross-disciplinary course such as the Business Law subject. For me it is to
discourage disjointed decision-making where issues are compartmentalised and dealt with one at a time;
avoid the possibility that the subject be seen as an abstract intellectual exercise with no real relevance to professional education.
to acknowledge the reality that socialization will naturally occur and to socialise students into a culture where moral considerations are seen as central to the 'nuts and bolts' issues of commerce.[2] Despite the frequently raised objection to the idea that education serves as a socializing medium, the decision to actively seek to socialise students through the teaching of ethics was based on a belief that those who object to educational socialisation fail to acknowledge the reality that socialization will naturally occur as part of the educational process. Therefore, the question is not whether education should or should not socialise but rather it should be about the values our educational institutions should or should not endorse.
to encourage the pursuit of consensus about fundamental values and the pursuit of understanding about the beliefs of others
to develop an understanding of the cause and effect link between commercial sector failure and government regulation and demonstrate that 'good ethics is good business' principle is made easier
3. Edited reading materials containing a carefully selected mix of theoretical extracts and current journal and newspaper articles have been designed to expose the students to a variety of arguments that challenge beliefs and extend the boundaries of learned behaviour beyond childhood and pre-adult experiences. Thus, students are encouraged to develop an understanding that ethical principles do not come in neat packages - one set for business and another for one's private activities - as well as to appreciate the nature of the complexities that render the learning of childhood and adolescence, insufficient for corporate decision making.
4. As part of the preparation to deal with the problems commonly encountered by business leaders, the readings have been selected with a view to providing a broad range of topics covering some of the more pressing contemporary issues. These include the cost of environmental vandalism and urban decay; the nature of the values generated by competitiveness and the social impact of the behaviours it rewards; the positive and negative features of globalisation; balancing work and family commitments, industrial regulation of a diverse work force, and responsible management of scarce resources. These topics are addressed within the context of their importance in relation to what has been identified by the author of this paper as ten responsibilities of corporate and commercial professionals:
a.to appreciate the breadth of the corporate role ie. that it extends well beyond profit maximisation;
b.to engage in debate about values and application of judgment;
c.to see business and management education as a moral endeavour rather than just the transfer of skills and knowledge;
d.to deal satisfactorily with increasingly pressing global pressures without compromising local established cultural values;
e.to develop the capacity to recognise and articulate the ethical dimension of managerial decisions and to develop an appreciation for the legitimate place ethical discourse has in business;
to understand that the separation of commercial activities from community concerns is a divide that is not in the best long term interest of a business;
g.to explore the systemic causes and consequences of unethical behaviour;
h.to identify opportunities to contribute to the broader community;
i.to identify the indicators of poor leadership;
j.to understand how absence of vision, insufficiency or inconsistency of values, 5.inability to distinguish between power and authority and a preoccupation with self interest lead to disabling outcomes such as workplace morale deficits, loss of organisational and individual purpose, decline in production and profits, diminished trust and erosion of legitimacy.
6. The materials expose students to a diverse range of moral beliefs and viewpoints, which they can apply to solving hypothetical dilemmas that arise out of the procedurally oriented legal content of the business law component of the subject.
The success the BLethics team has enjoyed since its introduction is very satisfying because it confirms that the team is fulfilling what we believe to be our primary aim as educators. Responsible universities have an obligation to develop something more in students than profit making acumen. As succinctly pointed out by former Harvard President Derek Bok, a responsible university has a basic obligation to society
...which it violates by refus[ing] to take ethical dilemmas seriously. And a university that fails to engage its members in a debate on these issues and to communicate with care, the reason for its policies gives an impression of moral indifference that is profoundly dispiriting to large numbers of students and professors who share a concern for social issues and a desire to have their institutions behave responsibly.[3]
7. In other words, the university must assume a significant share of responsibility for the way the corporate sector operates and its leaders behave. This requires students to develop an understanding of the way that commercial sector failure, which arises out of impropriety, prompts the government regulation. As Daniel Vogel points out "...new scandals often lead to the establishment of a new statute, regulation or regulatory agency.[4]
8. The response from the students to the idea that ethics has an important place in the business curriculum and to the requirement that they must engage in open and reflective discussion of moral issues, has been positive. The resistance that one expects when sacred beliefs and values are challenged has been surprisingly minimal. This is partly due to the fact that the need to provide for dealing with student resistance to the entire exercise of teaching and being taught ethics was acknowledged in the developmental stages of the subject content. Ruth Macklin's work on pluralism and indoctrination was seen as very valuable in this regard. She suggests that resistance arises out of a tension produced by conflicting obligations imposed on ethics teachers in societies where pluralism is highly valued. Firstly, there is the realization of a need to avoid the possibility of undermining the plurality of values on which our community is based and thereby failing to fulfil the obligation to be tolerant of a variety of moral beliefs. Secondly, the positive obligation to promote the diversity of views and moral convictions housed in a pluralistic culture cannot be fulfilled in circumstances where there is a contrary requirement to impose models of moral convictions and ethical positions.[5]
Those students, who could be described as falling into the resistant category, have responded well in workshop discussions of the issues raised in the readings, all of which have been designed to expose them to counter-arguments presented in an non-threatening way throughout the carefully selected and edited reading materials. The real value of this approach is that it does not exert pressure to change from entrenched viewpoints, particularly those arising out of religious influences. Rather, it acknowledges what Lisman describes as ...providing [students] with an understanding of opposing viewpoints [which]...might eventually result in their coming around to a more moderate way of looking at issues.[6] It also focuses on the five general goals recommended by Callahan for teaching ethics - stimulating the moral imagination; recognizing ethical issues; eliciting a sense of moral obligation; developing analytical skills[7] and promoting a tolerance of disagreement and ambiguity - while it minimises the possibility that students will feel pressured to change fundamental beliefs and developed behaviours.
8. Its success is evident in the high level of student engagement in discussion of the moral issues associated with commercial activity and the clear willingness of the students to probe into the more difficult dilemmas that arise for corporate leaders.
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