Getting an MBA degree by spending thousands of rupees will be of no use if it is from an institution without proper affiliation. Without legitimate affiliation, the degree will not considered to be valid and your prospects of getting placed with a reputed company will fall through. Candidates hoping to get MBA from a distance education university/institute should be even more alert about affiliation because they will not be visiting a regular college to gather ground reality.

Any business school needs to be governed by a government authority which will regulate its operations. It can be the University Grant Commission, All India Council of Technical Education or AICTE, Deemed & State Universities or the Ministry of HRD. For example, the IIMs are governed by the Ministry of HRD. Most of other business schools are governed by the AICTE.

Distance education directorates of various universities also seek approval from the AICTE apart from the DEC, to run courses of correspondence MBA.

If you are looking to sign up for a distance MBA program, you can go through the following rank list to make a choice. The rank list has been constructed by assigning weights to different aspects of a distance learning center like availability of counselling through centers, telephone lines and online, quality of the course, number of students enrolled, number of students passing out of the institute and the transparency of the whole examination process. The ranking is an average of all the heads included in the process. Some colleges have done better in some counts while some need to improve their performance on some other front.

The distance MBA universities in India 2014 Rankings given below have been constructed by Careers360. The names presented are an abstraction of the actual list. More than 170 distance education institutes have been surveyed for the process and then the final list has been drawn up.

1. IGNOU– Indira Gandhi National Open University, located in New Delhi, has 2.8 million students enrolled in the 2 year long MBA correspondence program has been given the top slot. To enroll for this program, you need to clear OPENMAT/CAT/MAT, have 3 years experience in a managerial position and have 50% in your graduation. Graduation can be from any discipline. A total of 21 courses are offered and the course fees comes to Rs 31,500.

2. Sikkim Manipal University– The Sikkim Manipal University Directorate of Distance Learning has been placed on 3rd position. With more than 725 centers in over 310 towns, the university offers a 2 year MBA program that offers specialization in a number of subjects like Finance, Marketing, Information Technology etc. The university has the ISO 9001:2000 certification and offers 1500 meritorious students with scholarships.

3. IMT Distance and Open Learning Institute– The IMT-DOL offers a 2 year MBA program to students in a direct admission basis. Students need to be graduates in any discipline. There is no entrance examination involved.

4. Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning– The Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning is an affiliate of the Symbiosis International University in Pune. The institute assists students to get placed once they graduate.

Getting an MBA from one of these  top AICTE recognized distance MBA will add a lot mileage to your career.