Students joining IIM Calcutta this year will pay fees to the tune of Rs 9 lakh. This is more than double the fees paid by students belonging to the 2007-09 batch. Last year, IIM Ahmedabad had raised its fees from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 11 lakh and IIM Bangalore had hiked it from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 9.5 lakh. According to external relations secretary and a first-year student at IIMC, Paul Savio, ?To maintain the autonomy of the institute and to depend less on government aid, the board of directors of IIMC had to hike up the fees. Irrespective, the fees are still heavily subsidised. The college has also doubled the corpus for need-based financial scholarships from Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore. This will come to the aid of many students.?
IIMC is planning to raise the number of faculty from 88 to 120 as a result of the rise in the strength of students from 304 to 407. Each year 2,100 students pass out of the six IIMs. The proposal to increase the faculty will be sent soon to the MHRD through the board. According to an official, ?The hike is in view of the increasing cost per student. The fee hike was essential, as the cost of operations have been increasing year-on-year.?
Responding to hike in fees by IIMC Yogesh K Agarwal, dean-academic affairs at IIML said: ?According to IIMC if the fee is not increased, it may lead to the perception that IIMC lags behind IIMA and IIMB in terms of facilities. I do not feel that this is a valid reason for increasing the fee. IIMs are public institutions. The fee should be in line with the actual cost of running the institution and its programmes.?
However Agarwal added, decision about a fee increase at IIML will be taken by the board at its next meeting. ?It is possible that the fee may be increased, but it will be done only if there are justifiable reasons, and not to match the fees at the other IIMs?, he said.
Aspiring IIMK applicants get student mentors
The mentorship programme of IIM Kozhikode (IIMK) this year logged 1,200-plus registrations. Launched last year, it provides much needed information to the group discussion/personal interview call getters about the second round process and how to approach it. The programme specifically helps B-school aspirants who had successfully cleared the first stage of entry into the IIMs, namely, the CAT exam. There are 120 mentors from diverse backgrounds including engineering, medicine, life sciences, commerce, economics and humanities who provide the candidates with a very thorough analysis of their queries on diverse issues. The advice seen as one from the horse?s mouth works through motivated groups of four mentors (current students) each, with each group having 25-30 mentees.