Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India

ICFAI University
	ICFAI University Logo
Type	Private
Established	1984
Location	Uttaranchal, Tripura, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram Nagaland, India
Affiliations	UGC
Website	www.icfai.org

Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI University) [hereinafter referred to as the University] represents the multi-campus network of universities, sponsored by the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India [hereinafter referred to as the Institute] in the states of Uttaranchal, Tripura, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland under respective legislations. ICFAI Distance Learning MBA and other courses are not valid for student who do not have domicile in these states. AICTE have not approved ICFAI to provid MBA to students from other states. The Governments of Rajasthan and Chattisgarh issued letters of intent to the Institute for the establishment of Universities. Each University in the network is a separate and independent legal entity. Consequently, the University confers degrees at bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels on eligible students subject to the University Regulations. The University Grants Commission has included the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (Icfai) University, Dehradun, Uttaranchal in the list of Universities maintained by the University Grants Commission under Section 2 (f) of the UGC Act, 1956. A number of educational programs are offered in management, finance, banking, insurance, accounting, law, information technology, arts, commerce, education and science & technology at bachelor’s and master’s levels on full-time campus and flexible learning formats. Examinations are conducted at over 130 test centers all over India, four times a year.

History

Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India, ICFAI started in 1984 with the flagship program Chartered Financial Analysts CFA.Since then it has been offering Programs at Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral Level. The University Grants commission has included the Institute of chartered Financial Analyst of India (ICFAI) University, in the list of Universities maintained by the university Grant commission under section 2 (f) of the UGC Act, 1956. ICFAI University will provide placements to the students of MBA, CFA & MCA programs. The placements would provide within 3 months from the date on which the program completion Certificate is issued by the University.

Strength

ICFAI Business School Hyderabad has a batch strength of 1200. While its strength all over India is more than 5000.

Campus

The new campus has begun functioning at Dontanapally, RR District (32 KM from Hyderabad). The size of the campus is 100 acres.It has all the modern facilities including hostels and Wi-Fi enabled campus, AC Classrooms, Sports Complex, Conference Hall and Screening facilities, shoping complex.

Criticism

ICFAI Distance Learning MBA is not approved from AICTE, which means it is illegal on Part of ICFAI to sell MBA certificates to students.

ICFAI University has been criticized for being money minded, which is not usually the case with universities in India.

Many student who take admission in ICFAI leave, because even after paying hefty fees student are asked to pay very high fees for basic facility like book library, past question papers, which is unheard in Indian universities till now.

“Examination Department” of ICFAI has been accused of involved in unfair practice.

Selective answer sheets in ICFAI exams go through “Negative Marking”. And the decision about which answer sheet will be negatively marked depends on how many services a particular student is paying for.

Student who join ICFAI franchises “study center”, subscribe to ICFAI publications at very high rate, (1800 Rs for monthly 50 page magazine for one year). Purchase past question paper, etc have less chances of there answer sheet going for a negative marking.

For poor student, chances of negative marking are very high.

According to a few students, “ICFAI branch office and study centers” also provide students with Question papers a few hours before the Exams. Which helps them scoring good marks.

ICFAI also tries to make money through co-branded products like credit card, book’s etc. This is a new trand in Indian education system where a University is working as market for other products and indirectly making huge amount of unaccounted money.

ICFAI branch office in various city’s are business oriented, they comprise mostly of sales staff, who are always more interested in selling admission to students, ignoring the main purpose of student i.e. to become a Post Graduate in Management.

ICFAI have provided a Email address to students which is suppose to answer student queries for various topics. Here also priority are set according to payment made by the student. i.e. high priority are given to students who have paid more in terms of subscription etc.

here are few links of various experience student have with ICFAI (Reference)

Comparison between IGNOU and ICFAI

Indra Gandhi National Open University or IGNOU also provide student with many Part time and correspondence courses MBA is one of them.

Here is a comparison between ICFAI and IGNOU Distance learning MBA

Fee Structure

ICFAI :- upfront Fee of approximately 100000 Rs and then extra fee for Library subscription , Past Question papers ( 200 to 500 Rs per paper) fee for almost any and every service.

Total cost of doing MBA comes around 2-2.5 Lakh. ICFAI Past papers books etc can only be purchase from ICFAI not for sale in market, nor third part publisher an print them.

IGNOU :- Upfront fee 15000-20000 Rs which Include Course fees , plus training classes and study material. Past question papers are available in market (first hand second hand) at cost of 30- 50 Rs with answers.

Total cost of doing MBA from IGNOU comes around 20-25 Thousand Rs.

Study Materials

Both Institute score equal in quality of content, except books of ICFAI are heavy and comes with a lot of reference with other paid publication from ICFAI (book not available in market). IGNOU provide good study material with references to book easily available in book market with first hand and second hand editions.

Classes

ICFAI have many centers in many city’s where fresh MBA pass out (mainly from ICFAI ) help student in learn various subjects. Cost of joining these study centers are approximately 5000-10000 Rs per subject.

IGNOU mostly have weekend classes in class room of government collages in most city’s. Teachers here are veteran Finance and Economics experts (who had been teaching for 10 + years in government collages most are Phd in Finance related topics)

Support

IGNOU score a little bit less, any study related query is immediately answered by Teachers , but admin related question take there own sweet time.

ICFAI on the other hand is very quick in resolving admin related issues, like Information about check status, or where is marketing office of ICFAI in your city etc. But study related queries are noted down my Teacher in study centers and answers are told in later stage.

Validity

IGNOU is a well known government university(worlds largest University), so every degree of IGNOU is well accepted and respected all over India and in International MNC.

but ICFAI is not recognized From AICTE.All India Council for Technical Education. ICFAI is only Registered in North-East states, and Validity of ICFAI itself is under questions. also till now not many students from ICFAI Distance learning MBA course have came out to know the worth in real Financial Industry.

ICFAI is trying hard to have get legality to its MBA course, but till now Suprim court is not convinced.

there are not yet many students from ICFAI who have joined the work force so Distance learning MBA from ICFAI doesn't have much value as of now.

Court Cases

There are many pending case against ICFAI in various Courts through out india.

A group of student from Pune are in proccess of filling a case in Consumer court against the Negative marking of answer sheet of poor students.

The base of this case is, Examination process of ICFAI is not certified by any nutral agency, which implies that ICFAI can evaluate the answer sheet of Student in any manner.

In every question paper of ICFAI, a note is present which says " There May be Negative Marking of Aanswer sheet" although the reason for which Nigative marking will be done or not done is not printed on Question paper.

Division

ICFAI University also has a special division called IBS-CDC which stands for "ICFAI Business School- Case Development Centre". Founded in July 2003, this division develops case studies based on recent published sources of global and, to an extent, Indian companies. Other activities include the development of teaching notes, structured assignments, and case volumes or compilations of case studies in various functional areas of management, all of which are designed to assist professors in discussing case studies at management institutes across the globe. The department is headed by Dr. Nagendra V. Chowdary. The cases developed by IBS-CDC are regularly uploaded at the European Case Clearing House which has a website, www.ecch.com

External links