IIM consensus on fee structure by June 25

Govt tells IIMs to work out uniform fee structure.

Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh yesterday got cracking on the IIM fee cut controversy by asking the B-Schools to arrive at a consensus on the uniform fee structure. He has set a deadline of June 25 to resolve the issue.

After a two hour-long meeting with the directors of five IIMs including Bakul Dholakia, director, IIM Ahmedabad, Shekhar Chaudhari, director, IIM Kolkata, Devi Singh, director, IIM Lucknow, Singh told the institutes that the government was with them in granting "autonomy".

Also present in yesterday's meeting included HR Singhania, chairman, IIM Lucknow, YC Deveshwar, chairman, IIM Kolkata, Krishna Kumar, director, IIM Kozhikode and SP Parasher of IIM Indore. R Srinivasan, dean, IIM Bangalore, represented the institute's director, Prakash Apte.

VS Pandey, joint secretary in the HRD ministry, hitherto vocal on the issue, did not attend the meeting. Dholakia told reporters he was confident the differences would be sorted out through dialogue. Parasher indicated that a graded fee structure could be a possible alternative.

Ministry sources said the directors of the institutes would consult over the next few days and arrive at a common fee structure by June 6 at Ahmedabad. This will be followed by discussions with HRD secretary SC Tripathi on June 8. A final decision will be taken by the boards of the respective institutes.

Singh clarified that the ministry had not come up with any suggestion and that the IIMs were given ample space to manoeuvre. He pointed out that this move was affirming the HRD ministry's commitment to maintain autonomy for all institutes of higher learning.

The minister regretted that the student community would be inconvenienced, and requested them to bear with him till the end of June when a decision on the uniform fee structure was taken.

He said he would not like to criticise the ministry's earlier decision under Murli Manohar Joshi of unilaterally slashing fees, but maintained that the decision should have been taken in consultation with the IIMs.

When it was pointed out to him that the previous government's order had been challenged in the Supreme Court, Singh said the apex court had not yet admitted the case. He expected the court to give time to the institutes, considering that the negotiations and dialogue process were still on.

The minister said that all the participants took cognisance of the fact that this was a "complex issue" and hence detailed discussions were necessary.

He said all the boards were separate entities and had a right to legally take a view on an issue like fees. It was, therefore, necessary to bring about a commonality of views, he said.

HRD ministry sources said there were no discussions on the Shunglu Report. Singh told mediapersons that the report bore no relation to the meeting. The Shunglu committee had recommended that IIMs should be audited.