Panel asks IIMs to defer fee increase

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have been asked by the IIM Review Committee to put on hold their decision to increase the fees for the two-year Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) from the coming academic session.

In its interim report submitted to the government on April 4, the Committee said the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry should ask the IIMs to defer any increase in fees and keep them at the December 2007 level till it submits its final report.

The government has since forwarded the Committee’s recommendation to the chairpersons of the IIMs.

This information was provided in the Rajya Sabha by Minister of State for HRD, D. Purandeswari.

To a question on whether the IIMs had increased their fees by about 70 to 150 per cent, the Minister said only one of the six institutes — IIM Ahmedabad — had increased it by 175 per cent from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.5.50 lakh in the first year and from Rs.2.30 lakh to Rs.6 lakh in the second year.

The quantum of the hike in the other five IIMs is 60 per cent at Bangalore, 50 per cent at Calcutta, 25 per cent at Lucknow, 57.89 per cent at Indore and 57.90 per cent at Kozhikode.

In the case of IIM Bangalore, the proposal is to increase the annual fee from Rs.2.50 lakh to Rs.4 lakh in the first year and Rs.5 lakh in the second year. At IIM Calcutta, the hike is to be from Rs. 2.014 lakh and Rs.1.986 lakh to Rs.3 lakh and Rs.4 lakh.

While IIM Lucknow proposes to hike the fees to Rs.2.5 lakh annually from Rs.1.945 lakh and Rs. 2.095 lakh respectively, IIM Indore has sought to increase it from Rs.1.90 lakh in the first year and Rs.2 lakh in the second year to Rs.3 lakh and Rs.3.10 lakh.

IIM Kozhikode is to hike fee to Rs.3 lakh from Rs.1.90 lakh in the first year and Rs.2.10 lakh in the second year.