IIMs planning to introduce full scholarships for needy students

The directors of the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) met the representative of the human resources development ministry today and apprised him of their decision to maintain status quo on fees.

At present, the IIMs charge between Rs 1.06 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh as fee per student. While there would be no fee cuts in the IIMs, the institutes would introduce up to 100 per cent scholarships, ministry sources said.

The IIMs have decided against a "uniform fee" but have instead suggested a uniform "fee-structure".

Sources said the ministry had taken cognizance of the fact that fees could not be uniform across the different IIMs as the different institutes were at different stages of development. Also, the scholarship amounts could vary according to the needs of the students.

According to sources, the institutes are now prepared to provide even 100 per cent scholarships for poor students.

Also, if in a particular academic year, there are no poor students applying for need-based scholarships, the institutes will themselves identify needy students based on the income groups and the number of dependents in the family.

Sources said the institutes would, however, not fix any quota for poor students.

It is still not clear if the government will fund need-based scholarships for the IIMs at Indore and Kozhikode.

The government may, however, try and ensure easy availability of loans at reasonable interest rates to address the needs of poor students. Whether the scholarships will be in the form of loans or grants is also not clear.

At the meeting, the Shunglu report, which had backed the drastic fee cut proposal of former Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, was also discussed.

The matter is expected to be taken up at the institutes' respective board meetings. It was decided that all the six IIMs will now meet every three months to evolve common strategies.

After the 90-minute meeting with Education Secretary S C Tripathi, the IIM directors told reporters that "everything was going very well" and they were "very happy".

This has raised hopes that the controversy over the fee cut issue, which has been raging for the past four months now, is nearing a resolution.

The meeting was also attended by Sudeep Banerji, additional secretary in the HRD ministry.

According to the schedule decided at the May 31 meeting with HRD Minister Arjun Singh, the directors will place their fee proposals before their individual boards for a final decision before June 25, when the new academic year commences.

IIM-Ahmedabad Director Bakul Dholakia said its board would meet on June 19 to take a decision on the issue. He added the IIM-Kolkata board would meet on June 18 for the same purpose.

The board meeting of IIM-Lucknow would be held on June 23, IIM-Bangalore on June 21, IIM-Kozhikode on June 19, and IIM-Indore on June 14.

Besides Dholakia, IIM Kolkata Director Shekhar Chaudhari, IIM-Lucknow Director Devi Singh, S P Parasher of IIM-Indore and Prakash Apte of IIM-Bangalore were also present at today's meeting.