IIM-A cocks a snook at Joshi

Society proposes 17% fee hike, Board of governors meets today.

Thumbing its nose at the ministry of human resources development, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad Society, which runs the institute, has put forth a proposal to hike the fees for its post-graduate management programme starting in June by as much as 17 per cent to Rs 1,75,000 per year.

The proposal was tabled at the society's meeting today, which was chaired by N R Narayana Murthy, and was unanimously approved by the 40-odd members present. It will now be discussed before finalisation at the IIM-A's board of governors meeting to be held here on Saturday morning.

IIM-A Director Bakul Dholakia and Narayana Murthy declined to comment when asked about the proposal. But a well-placed source in the society confirmed the move to Business Standard.

"It will be finalised on Saturday. Once the proposal to hike the fees to  around Rs 1,75,000 from the current Rs 1,50,000 is passed, the students for  the next batch, which begins in June, will be sent their admission letters  which will detail the new fee structure," the source said.

The ministry of human resources development had on February 5 slashed fees at the IIMs by 80 per cent to Rs 30,000 per year.

Interestingly, a small hint of the impending fee hike is given in this  year's common admission test (CAT) manual. The chapter profiling IIM-A states: "Please note that the estimated fees of IIM-A is subject to review every year before the incoming batch's sessions begin."

Saturday's board of governors meeting will also be chaired by Narayana Murthy. A major chunk of society members who were present at today's meeting, including the Dean of IIM-A Indira Parikh, senior faculty B H Jajoo, and industrialist Anil Bakeri, will also be there at the board meeting.

Interestingly, the representatives of the ministry, joint secretary V S Pandey and financial adviser to the ministry V Piparsania, were conspicuous by their absence. Pandey and Piparsania are, however, expected to be present for Saturday's board meeting.

Meanwhile, the society meeting has resolved that the board of governors of IIM-A be authorised to initiate the process of dialogue and discussion with the ministry to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution.

It also resolved that the board be authorised to take appropriate
action to design and implement a scholarship grant programme for economically disadvantaged students, with the level of scholarship ranging from a full fee scholarship to partial scholarships towards financing the cost of education.

Another resolution authorised the board to mobilise the required amount of financial resources to support and sustain the enlarged need-based scholarship (NBS) scheme.

"We will make sure that even the poorest student who gets an opportunity to study in IIM-A will not have a financial problem. This scholarship may be extended to such students covering their 100 per cent expenses," said Narayana Murthy.

Indira Parikh has been assigned to handle the affairs related to the
scholarships. "The fund for scholarship as of today is of Rs 25 lakh, which we will be significantly increased," Murthy added.

The fees for a two-year post-graduate programme in IIM-A, which used to
cost Rs 30,000 during 1993-94, was hiked to Rs 1,23,000 during the academic year starting June-July, 2002. And it was hiked to Rs 1,50,000 last year.

IIM-A, which has been working on a project to be self-sufficient in funds for next five years, has already been bearing a subsidy of around Rs 1,30,000 per student every year. The institute 25 per cent of its revenues from the fees.