Review committee skirts fee hike issue at IIM-A

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) review committee, headed by R C Bhargava, has clarified that the issue of fee hike at the IIMs was not discussed at its meeting with the stakeholders of IIM-A today.

Insisting that the committee was not a ‘Super IIM’ to watch over the institute, Bhargava said hiking of fees was a decision that each IIM had to take, and that the panel had only suggested a deferment of the fee hike to the HRD ministry, not to the IIMs.

Sources present at the meeting say the fee issue was deliberately not tackled by the review committee as it did not want to discuss the issue with IIM-A further.

The meeting, instead, revolved around issues like autonomy, finances, accountability, corporate governance, administration, goals, policies and vision of the institute.

However, the committee’s recommendation would assume significance if it is accepted by the HRD ministry despite the fact that IIM-A has shown no indication of rolling back the fee hike.

Sources point out that most of the recommendations made by the previous IIM review committees in 1971 (Nanda committee) and 1992 (Kurien committee) were accepted by the HRD ministry, which went on to become directives for the IIMs. In case the Bhargava committee’s fee recommendation is accepted by the ministry, it will be binding on IIM-A.