The Indian Institute of Commerce and Trade (IICT), at work in Lucknow since 1997 as an autonomous society (1860 Act), confers diplomas of its own — no UGC degree status, as it says itself — and separately carries the centre role on a UGC-entitled university MBA. This page places both on the ladder that online credentials actually climb: by duration, by depth, by fee.
Everything else on this page hangs on one distinction, so it goes first. Through IICT you can reach two very different pieces of paper, and different bodies stand behind them.
Awarded by the institute under its own standards, in tiers that run from certificate-level short programmes through diploma and advanced diploma up to PG-level work. They sit outside UGC purview and are not degrees — and IICT itself is plain about that.
Swami Vivekanand Subharti University (SVSU) in Meerut, accredited NAAC A, grants a UGC-entitled distance MBA in dual-specialisation form; ₹65,000 is the complete figure for the two years. IICT sits in the centre seat: teaching, mentoring, support. Examining and awarding stay with the university. Two separate roles, two separate names on your paperwork.
If any provider's page leaves you unsure which of the three instruments is actually in front of you, the parent catalogue's degree vs diploma vs certificate guide is the plainest treatment we have.
Online management credentials sort into rungs by duration and depth. Fees on the diploma rungs below are the published table of IICT's sister institute, the Indian Institute of Pharmaceutical Marketing (IIPM) — also Lucknow, also an autonomous society, established 1998 — which prices the same tier structure in public. The degree rung is SVSU's published total. Each institute awards only its own diplomas; a university degree always originates with the partner university; the institute never issues it.
| Rung | Typical duration | What the paper represents | Published anchor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short course / platform certificateIssued by anyone at all | Days–weeks | Whatever the issuer says it certifies — the word alone carries no information | Priced by the platform |
| DiplomaAutonomous institute, own standards | ~4 months | Foundational, examined coverage of one specialisation | ₹5,500 IIPM, 4 mo |
| Advanced diplomaAutonomous institute, own standards | ~6 months | Deeper treatment — the rung people take to switch function | ₹7,500 IIPM, 6 mo |
| PG diplomaAutonomous institute, own standards | ~1 year | One specialisation at postgraduate depth | ₹11,500 IIPM, 1 yr |
| Masters-level diplomaAutonomous institute, own standards | 1–2 years | A full management curriculum. However it is titled, it remains a diploma | ₹25,000 IIPM, 2 yr · executive 1 yr ₹20,555 |
| University degree (distance MBA)Awarded by SVSU; IICT is the learning centre | 2 years | A UGC-entitled qualification with statutory standing, dual specialisation | ₹65,000 SVSU total, 2 yr |
Anchors are the providers' own published fee tables, quoted as totals, not per-semester figures. How fees behave across the wider market — and why the all-in number is the only one to compare — is covered in the catalogue's fee guide.
A diploma is a complete, examined syllabus in one specialisation. A platform certificate certifies whatever its issuer decided it certifies — sometimes rigorous assessment, sometimes attendance. When you need paper that says you covered a field, the diploma rung is where that begins, at a four-figure fee.
A degree costs two years wherever you take it, and on this ladder ₹65,000 against ₹11,500. If your requirement is depth in one function plus a credential from an established issuer — not a statutory qualification — a PG-level diploma delivers it in half the time for a fraction of the fee.
Read the requirement line before the brochure. If it says "UGC-recognised degree" — government recruitment, admission to further study, some employer policies — no diploma satisfies it, IICT's included. Anyone implying otherwise is misleading you.
When the requirement really is a degree, the honest route through IICT is the other product: the SVSU distance MBA, where the qualification comes from the university. How recognition actually works — entitlement granted per programme, per mode — is the subject of the catalogue's recognition guide.
Can a diploma from a society-registered institute be a serious credential? Indian management education already answered that. For most of their existence the IIMs could confer only the PGDM — a post-graduate diploma, no degree at all — because each was a registered society until the IIM Act changed their standing in 2018. Second-rate? Nobody said so. The word on the paper never did the work; the issuer's standing did.
That is precisely the question to put to any diploma on the ladder above, IICT's included: which organisation issues this, and what is its record?
No. IICT's own awards are autonomous diplomas issued under its own standards. They sit outside UGC purview and are not degrees, and IICT does not claim otherwise. If a requirement line specifies a UGC-recognised degree, a diploma will not satisfy it.
Yes — with the degree coming from the university, never from IICT. Swami Vivekanand Subharti University (SVSU) in Meerut, accredited NAAC A, grants its distance MBA as a UGC-entitled award: dual specialisation, ₹65,000 as the complete two-year figure. The centre work — teaching, mentoring, study support — is IICT's; examination and award remain the university's.
Start from the requirement line, not the brochure. If the requirement is a statutory degree, only the university route satisfies it. If the requirement is depth in one function plus a credential from an established issuer, a PG-level diploma delivers that in about a year. If the requirement is one capability quickly, a certificate or short diploma is the honest fit.
No. The MoU on record between Amity University and IICT operates at institution level only. Nothing a student earns flows from it, so give it no weight as a credential.