I recently saw a video on YouTube by Think School in which they explained this concept of MBA and showed a detailed case study of Masters’ Union. What stuck with me is how ‘too good to be true’ is this story. Masters’ Union is a startup like any other startup, but it focuses on providing MBA to students in a very different way. So, I have tried to focus this article over the whole startup and guide you about what this company is.

Traditional MBA:

Traditional MBA is something that is taught by world renowned universities like Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, or Indian companies like IIM’s. These universities are backed by well research and are established over many and many years back. These experience gives them an upper hand in education sector due to which people from all over the world try to gain admissions here and learn from these universities. What happens here is basically a textbook, study cases and practical cases curriculum. Everything for the timeline of 2 years is set and students basically must learn it to pass the exams. For many years, this is how the traditional MBA worked.

Rise of Masters’ Union:

Masters’ Union is founded by Pratham Mittal during the tough times of 2020 Covid. Pratham thought of providing the education of MBA different from traditional MBA. He thought of learning by doing method and most importantly to let students create something in the making. This idea sparked him with Masters’ Union creation. Pratham himself studied from University of Pennsylvania and The London School of Economics. Masters’ Union made a stellar debut from 2020 and got it’s batch of 60 students easily. This was purely because of the marketing strategy of the company due to which students who were willing to go abroad for studies but couldn’t attend it due to Covid decided to give Masters’ Union a try. This is how the journey started.

How is it different from other traditional schools:

What separates Masters’ Union from other traditional MBA schools is the way they teach MBA. First, it is let by top class faculties including Manoj Kohli, Chairman at Airtel, Srirang T K who is a board member at ICICI Bank, Pankaj Bansal, board member of PeopleStrong company and many more. These provide a real-world experience to the students due to which their learning improves. Apart from this student also get to attend live seminars and workshops which are also given by people in the industry leading the companies like Ashneer Grover, Aman Gupta, and Nithin Kamath. This exposure to the students again deepens the knowledge they build in the sector. And lastly students also build companies during their studies as a practical example which increases their experience in the business world more and more. So, this is how Masters’ Union has tried to change the course of learning for MBA.

Practical examples:

Students have created various startups at Masters’ Union including, Lightrance, Kar Ghar, Nava, Stay Desi, Augberry and many more. Also, many students have also tried to help local businesses in their journey by providing consultation values to them including the Subway and Revlon companies. Students have also built up a social media influence from Masters’ Union. Not just these, few of the students also built up a fully running startup which are still running and made their investment rounds successful, including Bullspree, Eight and Aplha Mint companies. These examples are the proof that students at Masters’ Union have a good experience in the industry and learn by actually doing things.

My thoughts:

What Masters’ Union tried is to make up a different MBA school in the world. This way of working is definitely a good work, but it does come with some form of criticism. The programs offered by Masters’ Union vary and provide good experience in many related fields. But the cost of studying also varies based on the program and ranges from 15 to 40 Lacs Indian Rupees. People have started to criticize due to this since this startup just started running from 2020 and doesn’t even have any international or national acclamation for MBA. Learning such type of MBA is great but what will happen after students pass out with degree from Masters’ Union which is not worthwhile in real world businesses. Also, the curriculum which is different from traditional MBA doesn’t fit well with the experience out in real world. All these factors might play an important role in the future of Masters’ Union. Because people will add some extra funds to the program fees and will eventually move abroad for studies than studying here in this startup. So, my thought is that a lot of changes might need to be make before gaining any big reputation. The road ahead is very long and difficult for Masters’ Union but it is definitely achievable.

Thank You! 😊

Masters’ Union Website: Masters’ Union: Learn Business by Running Business (mastersunion.org)