IIM students will have to shell out more

Doing a two-year post-graduate management course at any Indian Institute of Management is becoming increasingly expensive with most IIMs having already hiked fees by 5-43 per cent, while others plan to do so shortly.

After Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) hiked its post-graduate management course fee for this year from Rs 1.75 lakh (Rs 175,000) per annum to Rs 2.5 lakh (Rs 250,000) per annum, other IIMs are expected to follow suit.

At IIM-B, students will now have to shell out Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000) for their two-year post-graduate management programme.

IIM Lucknow is likely to raise its annual fee from the present Rs 1.69 lakh (Rs 169,000) to Rs 1.84 lakh (Rs 184,000) per annum.

"IIM Lucknow will discuss the proposal to hike its fee in its upcoming board meeting in March. There could be a hike of Rs 15,000 or above from its current cost of approximately Rs 3.5 lakh (Rs 350,000)," said an IIM-L professor.

While IIM Ahmedabad will take a decision on the same at its board meeting scheduled for March 31 this year, IIM Indore, which hiked its fee from Rs 1.25 lakh (Rs 125,000) a year to Rs 1.50 lakh (Rs 150,000) last year, says it has not yet decided on another fee hike.

"We have our board meeting scheduled for March and so far, we have not thought of increasing the fee. A decision could be taken in the meeting," said SP Parashar, director, IIM Indore IIM Calcutta is also considering raising the fee from Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh (Rs 400,000) for this academic year.

IIM Kozhikode, however, will not increase the fee this year. The institute had increased the annual fee for its post-graduate course from Rs 1.15 lakh (Rs 115,000) to Rs 1.50 lakh last year.