Predictably, confirmation of a decision taken in April by the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C, estb. 1961) to increase tuition fees of its two-year PGDBM (postgraduate diploma in business management) programme from Rs.9 lakh to Rs.13.7 lakh in the current academic year which began on June 21, has been greeted with dismay, not so much by students as by academics.
That’s because in the eastern seaboard state of West Bengal (pop: 80.2 million) ruled by the CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist)-dominated Left Front uninterruptedly since 1977, raising college or university fees has been alien to the academic culture for three decades. Tuition fees in the state’s 18 universities and 354 mainstream arts and science undergraduate colleges have been capped at the ridiculous amount of Rs.100 for the past ten years. Therefore in faculty common rooms across the state, snide remarks against this fee hike proposal are common currency.
Evidently IIM-C’s tuition fee hike doesn’t have the concur-rence of Prof. Sekhar Chaudhuri, director of IIM-C. “Raising fees cannot be the only option. I would like to urge industry to offer financial assistance,” says Chau-dhuri reflecting the subsidies-addicted mindset of West Bengal’s academic community.
But fortunately for the future of IIM-C, promoted and funded by the Central government, the board of governors is aware of the irony of stratospherically priced graduates receiving subsi-dised education. “The decision to raise tuition fees was taken after considering the fact that we had excellent placements this year, and we need more funds. Therefore the fee hike is justified,” Ajit Balakrishnan, advertising guru, promoter chairman of Rediff.com and incumbent chairman of the board of governors of IIM-C, told newsmen in April.
Indeed IIM-C’s placements have been more than good. All 280 graduates of the batch of 2010 had their pick of jobs with the annual remuneration package averaging Rs.28.5 lakh — the highest average of any B-school countrywide. Says Samyukktha Thirumeni, second year student and incumbent external relations secretary: “The fee hike is no big deal, and the additional funds will be used to improve academic and infrastructure standards of IIM-C. This will benefit the institute and future students.”
Clearly the tuition fee hike of Rs.4.7 lakh spread over two years isn’t likely to inconvenience IIM-C students beginning their careers at seven figure salaries. Particularly since the institute stopped receiving grants from the Central government in 2004 (the Centre stopped subsidising IIM-C, as well as IIM-A and IIM-B six years ago), there is tremendous pressure on IIM-C to mobilise funds for infrastructure and faculty development.
Right now IIM-C needs the money to add 500,000 sq.ft of floor space to accommodate the additional 27 percent OBC (other backward caste/classes) intake mandated by Article 15 (5) of the Constitution legislated by Parliament in 2005. Moreover the new fee structure, which is subsidies-free for the first time since 1961, will contribute towards IIM-C — which like all other IIMs has a teaching rather than research reputation — commissioning deep research projects.
IIM-C’s new fee structure approved by the board of governors last month is a sign that the stranglehold of the HRD ministry over the showpiece IIMs is being loosened. On October 8 Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal met the directors of the seven major IIMs and gave them the green signal to augment faculty and pay higher salaries from new fundraising initiatives.
Even if belatedly and gradually, half a century after IIM-C was promoted as the country’s pioneer B-school, the apron strings of the HRD ministry in New Delhi are being substantially relaxed, even if not cut.
Sujoy Gupta (Kolkata)