IIM-C hikes fee by Rs 3.5 lakh

IIM Calcutta (IIM-C) will increase the fee for the two-year post-graduate programme (PGP) by Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 13.5 lakh from academic year 2010.

Last year, IIM-C increased the fee for the PGP to Rs 9 lakh from Rs 5 lakh. Till 2008, the two-year PGP students paid Rs 5 lakh (Rs 3 lakh for the first year and Rs 2 lakh for the second year).

On the sidelines of its 45th annual convocation, Ajit Balakrishnan, chairman, board of governors, IIM-C, said, "We have decided to increase the two-year PGP fee to Rs 13.5 lakh from academic year 2010. We had to increase the fee keeping the escalating expenditure in mind."

Dinesh Verma, chief financial officer, told Business Standard, "Currently, the cost per student per year is Rs 10 lakh. The fee hike is aimed at recovering the deficit of around Rs 1.5 lakh per student per annum."

"Although in 2008 we decided not to raise the course fee, even as all other IIMs did so, we think we have to increase the fee now because of the Rs 200 crore we are investing in redoing the campus and revising salaries for faculty, Also, attracting quality researchers to the institute has become more expensive than what it used to be earlier," said Verma.

IIM-C has also decided to reduce the number of seats for the PGP batch this year by around 8 per cent. It will admit 375 students this year compared to 407 students last year. Earlier, IIM-C had said the student intake for PGP for academic year 2010 would be around 460 students.

"We have reduced the number of seats this year because of infrastructure constraints. We are expanding our campus and we do not have adequate classrooms and hostels to accommodate all the students. Last year, we took in 407 students and somehow managed to accommodate them, despite infrastructure constraints," Verma said.

IIM-C expects expansion to be completed this year and hopes to accommodate over 450 students in academic year 2011.

To combat the issue of faculty crunch, IIM-C had sent a delegation to the United States to recruit quality faculty, said Balakrishnan. The institute intends to increase the funds allocated for research and development.

"We spent nearly Rs 2.5 crore in 2009-10 on research and development and intend to increase that," Balakrishnan said.

The institute is also working on 100 per cent fee waiver schemes for students. "Around 40 per cent IIM-C students come from families whose monthly income is less than Rs 20,000. We intend to increase scholarship disbursals and even look at 100 per cent fee waiver for needy students, as and when required," said Balakrishnan.