Hyderabad: Giving relief to students of the integrated MBA course in the state, the Telangana government recently issued an order where it removed the barriers for lateral entry and smoothened the process of leaving the course after three years of study. The Telangana state higher education council will take necessary action in this regard soon and it is likely that it will be implemented from the next academic year.
As per the GO dated 22nd March, there will be an exit option at the third year in integrated MBA for the award of BBA degree and lateral entry admissions can be done into the MBA as per the norms of the AICTE and UGC. In most central universities, this has been implemented in accordance with UGC orders. This will be followed in state run business schools as well now.
Students and business schools welcome this step as it allows flexibility for them to leave the course with a graduate degree; they can change the course if required. Shrinivas Acharya T, executive council member, South - of Association of Indian Management Schools, said, "This is a great relief to students who wish to take the exit option for a job or higher education in premier institutions in India or abroad. It is also advantageous for institutions to fill vacant seats caused on account of such exit options at the end of 3 years through the lateral entry mode."
It can be mentioned here that as per the UGC Gazette Notification, 2014, the UGC also provides for such an exit option in all dual degree or integrated programs. The scheme specifically states that integrated programs can be offered by colleges and if the integrated program intends to offer a single degree without permission to exit / lateral entry, the program duration may be relaxed by not more than 20% of the total of prescribed duration of the two degrees that are being combined to make a single integrated degree.
