IIMs' expenditure overstated: Shunglu

The VK Shunglu committee report on the Indian Institutes of Management has said the institutes have often overstated their expenditure and their revenue streams are more than adequate to run them on a no profit, no loss basis.

Pointing out that the institutes have been running more as business enterprises than educational institutions, the report says the IIMs have increased the post-graduate management course fee by over 20 times in 13 years. The short-term course fees for executives have been increased three times, without any serious attempt to curtail expenditure.

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S C Tripathi, higher education secretary at the human resource development ministry, briefed reporters in New Delhi about the contents of the report. Tripathi, however, did not give details about the areas where the IIMs have overstated expenditure.

The committee, under the chairmanship of Shunglu, former Comptroller and Auditor General, was set up by Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, in February this year, to analyse the financial structure, funding and fees of the six IIMs in the country.

The report adds that over the years, the faculty have paid more attention to their consultancy assignments without giving priority to the management courses.

The core function of the institutes is to expand management education through PGM (post-graduate management) courses, but not enough attention is being given to them, says the report.

Instead it adds that there have been occasions when the IIMs have used a grant from the government to bolster their corpus fund, instead of using the same for the stated purpose.

The faculty spends only 30-35 per cent of their time for the post-graduate programmes, instead of 90 per cent as claimed by the IIMs. It says the returns from consultancy assignments prove that the PGM course is not a priority area.

S C Tripathi, higher education secretary, at the human resource development ministry said that the Shunglu report would be open for debate. Tripathi said that presentations would also be made before the Board of Governors of the IIMs, explaining the recommendations of the report.

He however added that the final word on the Shunglu report would be that of Murli Manohar Joshi, human resource development minister.

Tripathi is scheduled to meet Narayana Murthy, chairman of the IIM A Society on May 15.