Bringing some hope to working professionals who cannot afford to quit their jobs but aspire to pur sue higher education, the Indian Institute of Management, Ah medabad, has announced an online diploma course in management. The twoyear post-graduate programme in management (e-PGP) offers interactive onsite learning (IOL) platform, using a hybrid structure of online and classroom learning. The institute's faculty members will teach students in nearly 800 classrooms in 45 cities across India, said director of premier B-School Ashish Nanda. The fee is pegged at Rs 17 lakh.The course will begin in June and IIM-A is on the lookout for junior, mid and senior level working professionals and entrepreneurs to enrol for the programme. Prof Biju Varkkey and Abhiman Das, in charge of the e-PGP course said that the basic criterion for the candidates includes graduation with 50% and a minimum three years of work experience. The institute will consider CAT and GMAT scores for admission. Apart from this, it will also conduct an online admission test ­ the IIMA Admission Test (IAT) which will be held in March-April.“The candidates will have to appear for a personal interview and group discussion round as well. The two-year course is a combination of on-site learning as well as e-learning delivered through interactive learning platforms, classroom-based instruction, continuous evaluation and mentored project. The first year will be management teaching for 30 credits and candidates will be offered range of electives in the second year,“ Prof Varkkey said.He said, the rigorous and intense course will also have minor and major group projects in the second year. These will be mentored by IIMA faculty members. The briefing was attended by institute's technology partner Hughes Global Education's Partho Bannerjee, Shantanu Moitra and Natasha Bhan.Prof Nanda said, the course fee is pegged at Rs17 lakh. “The course is aimed to cater to only candidates from India. Those who take up the e-PGP, however, will not be allowed to sit for the placements meant for regular PGP students,“ Talking about managing e-PGP programme when they are facing faculty-crunch, Nanda said they will try to do their best by roping in best of faculty members, alumni as well as quality faculty members. IIMA's faculty strength is between 95 to 100 members currently, said Nanda.