Students' Corner

Dear Students,

LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Amidst inflationary trends, is it justifiable for institutes to increase fees this year?

BEST RESPONSE

As a student, I see the fees of an MBA program more as an investment in my career development rather than as mere cost. Similarly, while deciding the fees, B-schools keep in mind a few other factors such as number of students applying, the ROI a student gets after completion apart from inflationary trends. The slowing economy has impacted the job packages being offered at campus placements whereas inflation rates have not shown signs of relief. Keeping these factors in mind, B-schools should avoid hikes in fees this year or increase by not more than 2-3%.

- Abhinav Dave, Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development, Pune.

OTHER RESPONSES

As inflation goes up, cost of every commodity shoots up. But in past few years we have witnessed a huge increase in fee of most of the institutes.  But there are few colleges, most of them government-run which have maintained constant fees for the past few years. So, those colleges whose fee structure is low can increase the fee, and the rest should not.
- Nilaya Mitash Shanker, IIT Roorkee.

India is a developing economy and it would certainly need more number of qualitative graduates who can contribute to its growth. Increasing the fees would put off those deserving students, who cannot afford. The government is not really that desperate for funds and more so with the premier private institutions, even though inflationary trends do exist. Most students are financially dependent as they do not work. So fee hike is not in anyone’s interest.

- Amarnadh Gandham, ICAI, Guntur.

Currently, majority of institutes charge students exorbitant fees corresponding to expenses incurred. So, with inflation colleges would have an increased outlay which in a way legitimizes fee hike in forthcoming session. But the notion of putting this additional burden of increased spending on students is unacceptable. Rather institutes should consolidate their efforts to curtail their disbursement on superfluous things. It will assist in underpinning the endeavor of several pupils with insufficient financial backing. And such efforts towards mutual benefit will only take institutes to the next level whereby making it economically feasible for scholars to become part of them.

- Shivam Chhabra, Integral University, Lucknow.

Education fees is a major source of funds for institutes. Quality of education won't increase if institutes do not have sufficient fund. However, education is the fundamental right in India and no person should be denied admission to the institutes just because he/she cannot afford the fees of the institution. Institutes need to come up with alternate schemes of raising the fund first like donation from alumni, research fund from companies etc. and then only they should go for raising the fees only if needed. After all there has to be some difference between education and business.

- Chintan Parikh, IIT Kanpur.

Inflation should be taught and not adopted in temple of learning. We had the concept of gurukul ages back to make sure that we would have one activity on earth not oriented towards profit generation but to nurture those who would generate profits for the economy. Institutes have the option of raising intake of students, Even a handful rise in intake will make up for the assumed inflation and it will also increase the chances of students to get the education they deserve which is essential in a country like India which is gripped with deficiency of higher education.

- Chaahat Khattar, IBS Hyderabad.

The top notch private engineering, MBA colleges already charge exorbitant amount of fees. The second rung private colleges won't increase their fees due to the supply and demand gap of students. Inflation can be a pretext for government colleges to increase their fee but this being an election year the government would be reluctant to do so. There is a little chance of fee hike this year.
- Swar Grover, GNDU, Amritsar.

MBA colleges in India have mushroomed at the same pace as engineering colleges did some years ago, irrespective of whether they were able to cater to students or not. The current economic slowdown has led to the students as well as parents becoming wary of the fact that a MBA degree doesn’t guarantee good job anymore and the fact that 94 management institutes from across the country has shut down in 2013-2014 because of not being able to fill the seats is a testimony. In face of such a downtrend it doesn’t make sense for the institutes to increase fees.

- Anuraag Kalita, XIME, Bangalore.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Do you think the announcement of a research fund in the interim budget is enough to boost research work in the country?

Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.

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