The Hindu : Front Page : IIM-Ahmedabad not to roll back increase in fees

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Thursday, Apr 03, 2008
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IIM-Ahmedabad not to roll back increase in fees

Special Correspondent

Singhania says he convinced Arjun Singh that the institute was only trying to meet its rising costs

Offers scholarships of Rs.8.5 crore this fiscal
The IIM-A is spending Rs.5.5 lakh for each student a year, and its corpus is eroding

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, does not intend rolling back the over two-fold increase in fees for the two-year postgraduate programme from the coming year. This was announced by IIM-A chairman Vijaypat Singhania here on Wednesday after an hour-long meeting with Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh.

Briefing mediapersons, Mr. Singhania said he had convinced Mr. Singh that the IIM-A was not trying to make profits, but was only trying to meet its rising costs, which were expected to further mount once the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission were accepted by the government. There was, however, no comment from the Minister or the Ministry.

Pointing out that the Minister was concerned at the fee hike making IIM-A inaccessible to a large section of students, Mr. Singhania said he pointed out that the institute would be providing scholarships to the tune of Rs. 8.5 crore this fiscal against Rs. 39.5 lakh in 2007-08.

This increase would enable the IIM-A to give out scholarships to 62 per cent of its students. Also, the eligibility criteria were relaxed to make more students eligible for scholarships. Earlier, only those hailing from families with an annual household income below Rs. 2 lakh could apply for scholarships. Now, this limit was increased to Rs. 6 lakh. The scholarship amount would differ with incomes, Mr. Singhania said.

New pattern

Also, unlike in the past, students would not have to pay their fees first and then scout for scholarships. From the next academic session, students eligible for admission could directly apply for a scholarship and get their education subsidised.

Insisting that both the IIMs and the Indian Institutes of Technology should stand on their own feet and stop being a burden on the government, Mr. Singhania pointed out that even with the doubling of the IIM-A fees, the programme at the institute was much cheaper than that in some private business schools. Further, the IIM-A was spending Rs. 5.5 lakh for each student a year, and its corpus was eroding because of the rising costs and the relatively static fee structure.

Last Saturday, the Board of Governors of the IIM-A decided to increase the fees for the two-year programme from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 11.5 lakh. Earlier, students had to pay Rs. 2.5 lakh annually but from now on they would have to pay Rs. 5.5 lakh in the first year and Rs. 6 lakh in the second year.

Autonomy issue

With autonomy to institutions of higher education being a key commitment of the United Progressive Alliance in its Common Minimum Programme, the Ministry had refrained from comment till date but it did call for a meeting with Mr. Singhania to discuss the issue.

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