IIM-C doubles fees
21 Feb 2009
Aspirants for a degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, will have to cough up more than twice what they may have expected, as the Kolkata-based B-school yestray decided that from this year, students will have to pay Rs9 lakh for the two-year course, instead of the earlier Rs4 lakh.
Under the revised fee structure, students will have to pay Rs4 lakh in the first year and Rs5 lakh in the second year for the post-graduate diploma in business management and diploma in computer-aided management programmes. Current students, who will be promoted to second year in 2009, will need to pay a total of Rs7 lakh.
In spite of the hike, IIM-C fees will remain lower than those of IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Bangalore. Last year, when the IIMs in Ahmedabad and Bangalore increased their fees to Rs11 lakh and Rs9.5 lakh, IIM-C had decided to show some restraint. The chairman of the board of governors, Ajit Balakrishan, claimed that a fee hike was not a make or break issue for the institute. However, it has now changed its mind.
"Over two years, the institute has to spend Rs8 lakh per student. Now, with the fee hike, we hope to cover the cost," said IIM-C chief administrative officer Dinesh Verma.
"Since our fee was lower than IIM-A and IIM-B, questions were being raised about whether we offer any less facility than the other IIMs. That is not true. Last year, IIM-A and IIM-B went ahead and increased their fees without even consulting us. We had already announced that we were also going to increase fees this time," said a faculty member of IIM-C.
The fee hike coincides with a rise in the number of seats for the 2009-11 batch, from 304 to 407, to accommodate the government-imposed quota structure. The institute's board of governors has requested the ministry of human resources development for additional faculty posts.
"We have 88 sanctioned faculty seats but we have to increase it to 120 to ensure that the teacher-student ratio is maintained at 1:10," Verma said.
The fee for international students has not changed. "Foreign students will continue to pay US $20,000 a year or US $40,000 for the two-year course," said Verma.