Ask & Answer: India's Largest Education Community

MMS stands for Masters in Management Studies and is a 2 year management degree program that is approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The course content is very much similar to a regular MBA program as it provides in depth knowledge in different areas such as marketing, systems, HR, operations, and finance. If anything, universities offering MMS claim to be more industry ready than other colleges providing MBA degrees. This is because MMS is designed to provide not just theoretical knowledge but has a solid practical content as Universities have strong tie ups with corporations to provides students inside knowledge of the practices in the industry. Thus MMS can be a stepping stone to a successful career in any industry as the student is industry ready by the time he completes the course.
PGDM expands to Post Graduate Diploma in Management, the confusion starts when you see the term Diploma. Many students are of the view that it is a Diploma course and not a Degree; you are right to an extent that it is a Diploma. The main reason why postgraduate courses are named as PGDM is because when an Institute is an autonomous body (meaning it is not affiliated to any University) and conducts management courses then such Institutes cannot offer MBA degree. Even IIMs, XLRI's doesn't offer MBA degrees they only give PGP Diploma or PGDM since they are autonomous and independent bodies. On similar lines AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) is allowing approved colleges to run a PGDM course. Some business schools offering this AICTE PGDM course need not be autonomous, the PGDM course will be autonomous given by the institute & directly approved by AICTE, Ministry of HRD, Government of India.