Post-graduate diploma in management studies (UK)

Post Graduate Diploma in Management Studies (DMS)

The DMS in its official form was originally a post-graduate diploma offered at UK university business schools and Regional Management Centres. [Its genesis was out of an earlier management diploma commenced by the British Institute of Management (BIM) with the approval of The UK Department of Education and Science (DOES), which was not formally a post-graduate diploma.]

The DMS when introduced as a post-graduate qualification was accredited by the DMS Committee of the DOES. It originally required either one year full time or 3 years part-time study, and was arranged in two discrete sections: Part A and Part B. It was compulsory to pass the Part A examinations and assessment first before being allowed to take Part B. Part B consisted of the final examinations and a project dissertation. Overall the marks achieved in coursework, examinations and the final dissertation had to exceed a weighted threshold for the candidate to pass and be awarded a DMS. It was thus quite an intensive course with a large workload. It was originally little different in fact to most MBA courses run now in both content and academic depth, and in some cases was more intensive. It was originally directed at the level of a General Manager in a large corporate enterprise, but subsequently other more specialized DMSs were introduced (such as in HR and Project Management) and the original DMS was reclassified as DMS (General).

Entrance was originally open to managers in mid-career, who were of graduate level or who had an accepted equivalent graduate-level qualification, and there was a minimum age of 30 for entry to the course. Initially in the UK the qualification was accredited by the DMS committee of the DOES. It was originally accepted by the BIM as its core qualification for admission as a full member. [The BIM subsequently was renamed to The Institute of Management when combining with the Institute of Industrial Managers, and now has again been renamed to become The Chartered Management Institute (see http://www.managers.org.uk/), after obtaining a Royal Charter, which however is only in reality applicable to a small proportion of its members at present. The DMS is still accepted as part of the required qualification for Chartered membership, but the institute has now also introduced a management diploma under its own auspices (see http://www.managers.org.uk/listing_with_description_1.aspx?id=10:67&id=10:60&id=10:7), and it makes no recognition at all of the profound difference in the original academic level of the DMS and its currently degraded level.] See Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartered_Management_Institute

About 1976 accreditation for the DMS was transferred from the DMS committee of the DOES to the CNAA. When the CNAA was subsequently dissolved (as part of the activities of the UK government at that time to generally lower standards in UK education for political reasons) the academic standard of the DMS became gradually corrupted and markedly lowered. Gradually the course duration and depth of study was much reduced and eventually in most universities and centres all or almost all of the previously-required examinations were abolished.[Example: http://www.don.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate_and_professional/postgraduate_and_professional/management/postgraduate_diploma_in_manage.aspx; http://www.northampton.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/detail/?id=0063; http://www.chriscrofttraining.co.uk/diploma_in_management_studies.html] The "award" was subsequently then assessed on the basis of only coursework with the much reduced academic level, although there seems to be evidence now of reversion back to some formal examinations, but in many cases these are now of an "open book" type. The full time duration was reduced to as little as 4 months in some cases and as little as 9 months part time.

As a direct result of this dilution it lost virtually all the status and esteem which it previously had, which in any case had never been significant, since it had never been properly accepted or valued by commerce, industry and business in any case. Most students who might have considered studying for a DMS then moved directly to studying for a taught MBA instead. The DMS gradually fell into almost complete disrepute as a direct result, and almost all the universities and other institutions running these courses ceased them, except for the few that continue them now with no examinations, somewhat like a degree mill. All of the previous full-time courses were eventually ceased, because as a direct result of the devaluation of the DMS there were no longer sufficient student applications for the courses. [The whole concept of Regional Management Centres in the UK had failed in any case and gradually all of these had been closed down.]