Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB), ranked 15th in the Financial Times list of top B-schools in the world, has increased its academic fee (comprising admission and tution fees) by about 10 per cent to Rs 16.5 lakh for the batch joining in 2009-10 for its flagship one-year postgraduate programme (PGP).
The fee, according to the details posted on the ISB website, includes an admission fee of Rs 2 lakh and a tuition fee of Rs 14.5 lakh. The accommodation, books, laptop, alumni association membership fee and meal expenses work out to Rs 2.66 lakh, taking the total cost of studying at ISB to Rs 19.16 lakh.
STUDYING AT B-SCHOOLS GETS MORE EXPENSIVE
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Students from the current batch (2008-09) said they had paid Rs 15 lakh as academic fee. The other expenses remained the same, implying studying at ISB cost them Rs 17.66 lakh. When asked to comment on the hike, an ISB spokesperson said: “It is a minor cost adjustment.”
The ISB, meanwhile, is raising its intake from 440 to about 600 from 2009-10. This will imply creation of more accommodation facilities for students.
The course spans one year but matches the rigour of the two-year courses offered by other global B schools.
Meanwhile, after the Indian Institutes of Management at Ahmedabad and Bangalore, IIM-Lucknow (IIM-L) and IIM-Kozhikode (IIM-K), too, have decided to raise the fee for their two-year flagship postgraduate management programmes.
Currently, the total fee for the two-year programme at IIM-K is Rs 6 lakh but for the session starting 2009-10, it will become Rs 7 lakh, an increase of Rs 1 lakh. “We are increasing the second year fee from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh from the next session. The fee will remain same for the current first year students,” said an institute official.
Though this decision is yet to be formalised, the IIM has hiked the fee to support its research activities and some new fellow programmes that it plans to introduce.
IIM-L has also increased its fee on similar grounds. “We hiked the fee because a lot of infrastructure activities are going on and we are also launching some specialised courses on environment and corporate social responsibility. Moreover, this is the last year of the block grant of Rs 10 crore we got from the government five years back. We need around Rs 35 crore for our plans but the government is releasing Rs 23 crore in phases in the next three years for OBC (seats) expansion. Currently, the fee is Rs 5 lakh for two years and one of the lowest among all IIMs,” said Devi Singh, Director, IIM-L.
