IRMA plans 50% hike in fees

The Institute of Rural Management, Anand, (IRMA) plans to raise tuition fees for its post graduate programme in rural management (PRM) by over 50 per cent from the 2005-2007 academic session. The fee will go up to over Rs 2.2 lakh from Rs 1,45,500 at present.

"The fees for the next academic session would be revised to over Rs 2 lakh "" it would range between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.25 lakh. We revise fees once in three years and, as they were have not been revised since 2001, they will be raised in the next academic session," said K Prathap Reddy, director, IRMA. Apart from the fees, each student is expected to possess a computer of his own costing him around Rs 25,000.

"The institute is raising its fees since the purpose of subsidising management education (for rural development) is not met as most students are opting for jobs in the private sector," said Reddy.

The move by the rural management studies institute is to be seen in the backdrop of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) asking the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to slash fees by over 80 per cent to Rs 30,000 from around Rs 1.5 lakh per annum.

On the IIM fee controversy, Reddy said, "Can the government fix the salaries of students after they pass out of the institutes? If not, how can they fix the fees? At best, the government can frame a policy and should not interfere in the operation of the institutes.

IRMA was established in 1979 at Anand with support from the Government of India, the Government of Gujarat and NDDB to promote professional management of democratic and sustainable institutions for eco-friendly and equitable socio economic development of rural people. The state government had provided land for the institute.

Incidentally, IRMA has not received funds from the Central government since 1996. Till then, the institute received funds from the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), a central government body.

The institute meets it expenses through consultancy fees, management development programmes (MDPs) and its own corpus of funds. IRMA was provided with a corpus fund of Rs 9 crore from NDDB in 1987 and Rs 10 crore in 1996, subject to condition that the institute will use only the interest amount out of the corpus fund.

On the government grant, Reddy said: "We do not need any government grant. IRMA has brought within its ambit several non-government development organisations, international development organisations and various funding agencies, which address the issues of rural development."

"We plan to award over 30 scholarships of Rs 1 lakh each to students from the next academic session. Moreover, students will be refunded Rs 1 lakh of their course fee if they work in the rural sector for a minimum of three years," said Reddy.