PhD in management in Mumbai

Which Mumbai school fits a CAT scorer, a working manager or a labour researcher?

It depends first on who awards the degree, which comes from three kinds of body: an institute that awards its own degree (IIM Mumbai, IIT Bombay), a deemed university (NMIMS, TISS), or a state or private university (the University of Mumbai for JBIMS, Somaiya Vidyavihar University for KJSIM).

If you have a strong CAT or GMAT score and want to be paid while you study, start with the two Powai schools. If you are a mid-career manager who will not leave your job, compare IIM Mumbai’s Executive PhD with the IIT Bombay External category, which our guide to working while doing a PhD in Mumbai describes. If your topic is labour, caste and work, or livelihoods, TISS is a better intellectual home than a business school.

How do IIM Mumbai’s regular and Executive PhD programmes differ?

The 2026 admission policy runs both programmes through the same three steps: screening, the IIM Mumbai written test (IMAT, with verbal, data interpretation, quantitative and research-methodology questions, and possibly a writing section), then a research presentation and interview. The merit list weights the written test 40%, the interview 25%, the research presentation 15% and past academic record (plus experience, for executives) 20%.

Regular PhD

You need a master’s degree or two-year PGDM with 55%, or CA, CS or CMA (50%) plus a bachelor’s degree with 55%, or a four-year bachelor’s with a CGPA of 6.5. Applicants should preferably be under 35. Everyone sits the IMAT, but only candidates with a valid CAT, GMAT, GRE, GATE or UGC-JRF score get the stipend, which is ₹37,000 monthly for JRFs and ₹42,000 for SRFs under the DST office memorandum of 30 January 2019, plus HRA at 30% of the stipend for scholars the institute cannot house on campus. An IIM Mumbai eligibility page sets the stipend thresholds at the 90th percentile in CAT, 650 in GMAT, 300 in GRE and 650 in GATE. CAT, GMAT and GRE scores stay valid for five years, GATE and UGC-JRF for three, and take-home GMAT or GRE scores are not accepted. The 2026 policy let a scholar who joined without a score earn the stipend for the remaining years by qualifying before 30 September 2026; check the 2027 policy for the equivalent date. Fees in the 2026 policy are ₹65,000 in the first year and ₹55,000 a year after that with campus housing, or ₹41,000 and ₹31,000 without it.

Executive PhD

This is written for officers of the All India Services, central and state governments, PSUs and autonomous bodies, and for managers from private companies listed on a stock exchange with an annual turnover of at least ₹500 crore. You need 65% in a full-time master’s and in the bachelor’s before it, plus two years’ experience after the master’s (or 75% in a four-year bachelor’s and four years’ experience, or CA, CMA or CS with 60% and two years). The age limit is preferably 45, relaxable to 55. Before applying you must find an IIM Mumbai faculty member and submit a research proposal that person has approved.

There is no residency, but you spend at least one week a semester at the institute with your supervisor. Coursework is 12, 18 or 24 credits within the first year depending on your degree, assessed through project reports, seminars and end-semester examinations taken at IIM Mumbai. No stipend is paid. The fee is ₹1,85,000 in the first year, including a ₹25,000 refundable deposit, and ₹1,50,000 a year after that.

What does IIT Bombay’s SJMSOM ask of a management PhD applicant?

A research proposal before anything else. Section B.21 of the IIT Bombay PhD brochure for 2026–27 asks management applicants for a 1,000 to 1,500 word proposal in place of a statement of purpose, and applications without one are not considered. Our research proposal guide covers how to write one.

The school accepts four kinds of qualification, each with 60% (55% for SC/ST):

• a four-year bachelor’s degree in any discipline plus at least two years of work experience;
• a master’s degree in any discipline, or a two-year PG diploma in management from a recognised body;
• an executive MBA of at least one year from an IIT, IIM or a recognised university;
• CA, CS, CFA or ICWA (CMA), with 60% in the preceding degree.

Four-year graduates need a valid CAT, GMAT, GATE or GRE score to receive financial support. The support itself follows the institute-wide categories: a Teaching Assistantship of ₹37,000 a month for two years and ₹42,000 after that, for eight hours a week of teaching duties, or a Research Assistantship of ₹42,000 and then ₹47,000, for about twenty hours a week; both are paid for up to five years or until thesis submission. IIT Bombay’s window for the January 2027 session ran from 16 September to 17 October 2026; check on the portal whether SJMSOM is admitting in that session.

How do NMIMS, Somaiya and JBIMS choose PhD scholars?

NMIMS School of Business Management. The 2026 information handout lists 75 seats across business policy, marketing, finance, HR and behavioural sciences, operations and data sciences, entrepreneurship and family business, and economics, in full-time and part-time mode. The entrance test (100 marks, two hours, at the Mumbai campus only) is half research aptitude and half domain knowledge, and you need 50% to reach the interview. The merit list is 70% test and 30% interview. Holders of a valid NET, SET, GATE, GPAT or JRF skip the test but still interview. The 2026 batch had two admission phases, with tests on 11 April and 19 June, and classes from 18 July 2026. Coursework is 270 hours over twelve months, with 80% attendance required in each course, followed by a qualifying examination, written and viva, with two attempts allowed.

K J Somaiya Institute of Management. Somaiya Vidyavihar University’s 2025 admission manual for management requires its own entrance test unless you have NET or a JRF, a GMAT score of at least 350 taken between January 2022 and December 2024, or five years of teaching or research experience with papers in Scopus or Web of Science journals, patents or government grants. Coursework is 19 credits over two semesters, and the first semester is full-time, which matters if you are employed. Fees are ₹53,000 in the first year (₹3,000 of it refundable deposits) and ₹50,000 a year after. In 2025 applications closed on 8 June and the entrance test was on 2 July.

JBIMS. The Jamnalal Bajaj Institute is an autonomous institute of the University of Mumbai and a research centre for its PhD in management studies, with an intake of 40 on its programme page. The 2025–26 admission notice asked for NET, SET, PET, JRF or M.Phil. results and a research proposal, set 30 May 2026 as the last date, and named the personal interview as the whole selection process. Because JBIMS is a University of Mumbai centre, its scholars follow the university’s January 2026 regulations, which treat CA, CS and ICWA with a graduation as equal to a master’s for Commerce and Management admissions (R.PhD.2). The two official fee figures differ: the university’s 2026–27 fee circular gives ₹34,777 for a Management Studies PhD (₹10,000 of it refundable), but JBIMS’s programme page, citing the 2018 ordinance VCD/947, gives ₹17,680 in the first year and ₹15,355 after. Confirm the fee with JBIMS before paying. For the thesis itself, see how Mumbai University formats a PhD thesis.

Should an HR or labour researcher apply to TISS instead of a business school?

It depends on the question you want to answer. The TISS PhD in Management and Labour Studies at Deonar lists themes such as talent management, organisation development, leadership, social and women’s entrepreneurship, tribe and livelihoods, financial inclusion, agricultural value chains, ESG, employer branding, and caste and labour, including anti-caste labour histories of Maharashtra. Research on workers and work in society fits TISS; research on firm performance or HR analytics fits a business school. For TISS’s other Mumbai schools, from social work to habitat studies, read where Mumbai’s social scientists do a PhD.

Admission is narrower than at the business schools. Only UGC-NET candidates may apply (JRF within three years, or a NET result within one year). The school shortlists five applicants per seat on NET marks, and asks for a research proposal or concept note of at least 2,000 words. JRF holders are selected on the online interview alone; everyone else is ranked 70% on the NET score and 30% on the interview. The 2025–26 cycle offered 10 seats, closed applications on 5 January 2026, interviewed between 16 and 23 January, and began coursework on 10 February 2026.

TISS runs the PhD as a full-time programme with a daily attendance register, though a scholar who later gets a job can ask the Doctoral Students’ Office to convert to part-time. For 2025–26 the Mumbai campus fee was ₹66,500 in the first year, including a ₹10,000 refundable caution deposit, with ₹1,77,000 as the total course fee in the table.