IIMA not to roll back fee hike
NI Wire
New Delhi
Thu, 03 Apr 2008:
The Indian Institutes of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) has decided not to roll back fee hike but has increased scholarships grant by 20 fold so that poor students will not suffer.
During a meeting on Wednesday, the Chairman of IIMA Vijaypat Singhania assured Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister jun Singh that fee hike will not affect the weaker section.
He told that the household income limit for students to get scholarships has been raised from 2 lakh to 6 lakh.
Singhania said, “The amount of subsidy we will offer will increase from the current level of Rs 39 lakh to Rs 8.5 crore. Besides this we have hiked the eligibility criteria.”
Also under the new provision a student will have to pay only net fee after deducing the scholarship amount unlike previous rule in which students had to first pay the fee and then apply for scholarships, which would then be refunded.
The management institute’s decision to raise fee from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 11.5 lakh for its two-year post-graduate programme in management has drawn concern from various experts.
Raising concern over the alleged fee hike, Arjun Singh said, “I don’t want to disturb the autonomy ...but under these conditions, how will they lay down guidelines for the students from economically weaker sections, is what I want to know.”
Singhania after the meeting told that he explained to HRD minister, that the fee hike has been done purely on the basis of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendation.
He assured that IIMs will not become “a temple of profiteering” and justifying his decision he gave that annual cost of per student is Rs 5.5 lakh, or Rs 11 lakh for the two-year programme.
The IIM-A chairman said SBI had confirmed that loans would be available to students and that ICICI Bank has been approached for a similar commitment so that no deserving candidate miss the opportunity to study at IIMA due to lack of funds.
Reportedly other IIMs too have indicated to increase their fees, while IITs have already proposed one.