The board of governors of Indian Institute of Management Indore on Monday decided to charge the same fee for the academic session 2004-05 as was during 2003-04, even as it made a provision for need-based financial assistance to students whose family income was less than Rs 200,000.
"The fees charged by IIM-I in the year 2003-04 be continued for the academic session commencing June 2004, with provision for need based financial assistance," IIM-I board Chairman B N Kalyani and Director Dr S P Parashar told reporters after a meeting, attended by 13 members of the total 18, including a government nominee, Union human resources development ministry's additional secretary, Sudip Banerjee.
Elaborating on the need-based financial assistance concept, they said: "IIM-I will ensure that no post-graduate programme student faces any difficulty in pursuing education at IIM-I for want of financial resources. The board has decided that any student, whose family income is less than Rs 200,000 per annum, will be eligible for receiving scholarship amounting to full tuition fee waiver subject to the proof of income," they said.
"Students, whose annual gross family income was up to Rs 200,000 will also be eligible to receive financial assistance beyond full tuition fee waiver, in special deserving cases," they added.
Referring to the issue of deciding family income, Kalyani and Parashar said that the annual gross family income will comprise of the annual gross income of parents, self and spouse in case of a married person.
Besides, IIM-I will explore various resources such as contributions from the alumini and industry to create a fund for providing on its own, need based financial assistance in the next few years. Till then, need based financial assistance will be provided based on funds made available for the purpose by the government, they said.
The IIM-I will also provide all necessary assistance and support to all other students in obtaining bank loans for pursuing studies, Parashar said. Referring to the issue of uniform fee structure as proposed by the HRD ministry, Parashar informed that all the six directors of the IIM, who were meeting on the issue on a sort of forum, would meet again and submit their proposals in this regard to their respective board of governors till December end.
He also hinted that in view of different requirements of each institutes the fee structure may not be 'same' (uniform) but 'similar' in nature.