The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, is likely to reconsider its recent decision to hike fees, a possibility which could lead other IIMs to put on hold plans for similar raises.
No official comment has been made by IIM-A yet, but sources said the issue of a possible rollback
would be discussed at a meeting of a government committee formed to review IIMs on April 25. The IIM-A board of governors, which is the final authority in the matter, will meet a day later. Sources said there were chances that the board would follow the recommendations of the review panel on the fee hike matter.
In Delhi, it emerged that the government panel did not want the IIMs to change their fee structure before it submits its final review report. It wanted the institutes to freeze fees at Rs 3 lakh or less for a course.
Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandeshwari told the Rajya Sabha that the R.C. Bhargava panel submitted this recommendation in an interim report on April 4, a day after IIM-A announced its fee hike.
The recommendation has been forwarded to chairpersons of all the IIMs, the minister said.
IIM-A had announced that the fees for its popular Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management course would be Rs 5.5 lakh for the first year and Rs 6 lakh for the second year, a steep hike from the earlier Rs 3 lakh per year.
IIM-Bangalore too had hiked its annual fees to Rs 4 lakh from Rs 2.5 lakh.
Though all the six IIMs are autonomous, the proposed fee hikes were not received favourably by the HRD ministry, sources said. It had led to a debate on whether students from poor families can afford education at the premier institutes.
Inputs from HTC/New Delhi