IIM-A, IIM-C hike fees; others may follow suit

Studying at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) is going to be costlier with two institutes "" IIM-Calcutta (IIM-C) and IIM-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) "" hiking fees for the two-year post graduate management programme (PGP) by Rs 1 lakh.

The other IIMs, IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Kozhikode, IIM-Lucknow and IIM-Indore, are also expected to decide on fee hike at their board meetings in early March. 

STEEP INCREASE Fee hikes (Rs Lakh) for two-year PG management course
Institutes	Fee (2007)	Hike (2008)	Increase (%)
IIM-A	4.00	6	50
IIM-C	4.00	7	75
IIM-B	5.00	To consider	""
IIM-L	3.68	To consider	""
IIM-I	3.80	To consider	""

IIM-C announced it would hike its annual fee for the first year to Rs 3 lakh from Rs 2 lakh and for the second year to Rs 4 lakh from Rs 2 lakh.

Last year too, the premier institute had increased its fees from Rs 1.75 lakh to Rs 2 lakh per annum.

This means students at IIM-C will have to shell out Rs 7 lakh for the 2008-10 PGP batch, compared with the current Rs 4 lakh.

However, students seeking admission to the 2009-2011 batch will have to pay Rs 8 lakh.

Commenting on the fee hike, IIM-C Director Shekhar Chaudhuri said, "The decision to raise the fees was taken in view of the rising costs and will be implemented from the coming academic session.

The hike has been attempted at helping the institute meet growing expenditures while providing students better opportunities and improved facilities."

IIM-A has already hiked the fees for its two-year post graduate management programme to Rs 3 lakh per year, starting from the 2008-09 batch, from Rs 2 lakh.

Besides, the premier institute will also increase fees for the post-graduate programme in management for executives (PGPX) from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 14 lakh, starting from the 2008-09 batch.

IIM-Bangalore is also likely to raise the annual fees from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 2.75 lakh per annum. The institute had increased the total course fee to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 3.5 lakh last year.