IIM dreams just got more expensive, fees likely to touch Rs 22 lakh

At least nine prestigious IIM institutes of India are set to hike their fees by 5-17 per cent starting from the batch joining this year. According to The Economic Times (ET), nine Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) including the newer branches in Ranchi, Rohtak and Amritsar, are planning to increase their fees or have already increased it due to inflation, which affect the salary of the faculty and the costs of infrastructure. IIMs are supposed to sustain their own expenditure after the first 10 years. Inflation affects various kinds of expenses incurred -- from faculty salary to mess charges to maintenance of infrastructure -- all of which make a fee hike necessary, IIM Rohtak director Dheeraj Sharma told ET. The following IIMs are all set to hike their fee from the academic year 2018-20:

• IIM-Bangalore
• IIM-Indore
• IIM-Ahmedabad
• IIM-Calcutta
• IIM-Rohtak
• IIM-Trichy
• IIM-Udaipur
• IIM-Amritsar

A two-year postgraduate programme at the IIMs cost Rs 9-20 lakh. After the fee hike, the costs can shoot up to Rs 22 lakh.

IIM-Ahmedabad increases fees by Rs 1 lakh

IIM-Ahmedabad declared its decision to hike fees late last month. The institute raised the fee of its flagship postgraduate programme in management by Rs 1 lakh from the academic session 2018-20. "In line with inflation, we shall be raising it by 5 per cent. For PGP programme the new fee will be Rs 22 lakh for two years. There will be 5 per cent increase in PGPX (postgraduate programme for executives) fee as well," IIM-A Director Errol D'Souza had said. IIM-Ranchi also increased its fees by Rs 1.5 lakh -- from Rs 12.5 lakh to Rs 14 lakh, while IIM-Calcutta increased fees by Rs 1 lakh.

How the IIM Act affected the institutes

Parliament had on December 20 passed the Indian Institutes of Management Bill-2017, empowering the premier management institutes to grant degrees to students instead of postgraduate diplomas. The directors of all the 20 business schools met in the national capital on February 28 to reach a consensus on the issue. "Through this bill, we will remove all interference of the government, bureaucracy in the functioning of the IIMs. They will themselves decide how to manage and run these premier institutes," HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said while speaking on the bill. "The decision to grant a degree or diploma is to be taken by IIMs. They are free to do so. They have created a strong reputation for themselves, and their academic awards including the postgraduate diploma (PGDM) are recognised globally. The ministry will not intervene in it," a senior HRD ministry official said. Earlier, all IIMs were separate bodies registered under the Societies Act. Since societies are not authorised to award degrees, students admitted in the Master's programme were given a PGDM. Similarly, those pursuing doctoral studies are awarded the title of a "Fellow" at the end of their research. Although the PG diploma and fellow title are recognised by the Association of Indian Universities and the HRD ministry as being equivalent to an MBA and a PhD degree respectively, the equivalence is not universally accepted, especially for the fellow programme, which prompted the government to conceive the Act.

Recent IIM convocation ceremonies

IIM Bangalore, IIM Lucknow and IIM Ranchi held their convocation ceremony last month. While IIM Lucknow and IIM Ranchi gave postgraduate diplomas in management or PGDM to their students, IIM Bangalore was the first to award an MBA degree. IIM Udaipur and IIM Indore are also exploring the idea of granting degrees.