M Saraswathy Moneycontrol News
A two-year post graduate programme in management at the Indian Institute of Ahmedabad (IIM-A) will now set you back by Rs 21 lakh, up from Rs 19.5 lakh. With the IIM-A board approving a fee hike, it is anticipated that other business schools may also follow suit.
At IIM-Bangalore, the fees for the 2017-19 batch has been set at Rs 19.5 lakh excluding tax. Fees at the older IIMs including Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Bangalore are increased on a regular basis depending on the rate of inflation and costs involved. The fees currently stand at Rs 19 lakh for a post graduate programme at IIM Calcutta.
Even newer IIMs including the one at Kozhikode have increased their fees to cope with rising costs.
Business school officials said that unlike earlier when fees were increased once in every two to three years, now the hike is almost on an annual basis. "On one hand, inflation has been on the rise while on the other we are getting many more professors from abroad to teach at the campuses. This translates into higher tuition fees," said a senior IIM executive.
in a statement, IIM-A said that general inflation and implementing the Seventh Pay Commission have increased costs.
It added that IIM-A is also committed to ensuring that no deserving candidate misses out for financial reasons. In 2016-17, one-third of IIM-A students received financial aid.
While fees are much lower compared to an international degree (an MBA from Harvard Business School will cost approximately Rs 73 lakh excluding travel and visa fees), costs are expected to plummet in smaller business schools as they try to achieve par with IIMs.
For executive education programmes, the fees start upwards of Rs 25 lakh considering the batch has experienced professionals and are taught by industry doyens. This too, said business school officials, is expected to jump to Rs 27 lakh-Rs 28 lakh for the incoming batch in 2017.
Overall, financial aid provided by the IIMs has seen a 30 percent increase according to estimates. For executive education, usually the companies sponsor very senior staff. Business school professors said that the incidence of such sponsorship is also going down as companies battle cost pressures.
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