MBA aspirants may have to dig deeper into their pockets with Indian Institute of Management Kolkata (IIMC) raising the fees for its flagship Post Graduate Programme (PGP) to Rs 19 lakh from the 2016 academic session, close on the heels of similar fee hikes by IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) and IIM Lucknow (IIML) and other institutes.
With the 16.56% increase, the fee goes up to Rs 19 lakh from the earlier Rs 16,30,000. Foreign students will have to pay ten percent more (around $ 5000) with the fee pegged at $55,000. This is the first fee hike by IIMC in the past two years. The hiked fee covers not only tuition expenses but also other academic facilities including accommodation, medical facilities, library access and study materials. In 2014, IIMC had hiked the fee by 20%.
Meanwhile, the Board of Governors at IIMA, during a meeting on March 23, 2016 decided to effect an increase of its two year program course fee both PGP and PGP-FABM by 5.4% to Rs 19.5 lakh from the earlier Rs 18.5 lakh. The fee covers tuition fee, accommodation, study material including books, medical insurance and alumni association membership. Earlier, it had hiked the fee by 11% for the academic year 2015-17. The fee hike for the one-year executive programme was raised from Rs 21.5 lakh to Rs 24 lakh.
The biggest increase was by IIML that hiked the fees by nearly 30% to Rs14,00,000 from Rs 10,80,000 earlier. IIM Bangalore had effected a 10% increase in fees to Rs 18,70,000 from the 2015 academic session. IIM Raipur had also raised the fees to Rs 10,51,000.
The justification given for fee hike by the IIMs range from inflationary pressure to bringing it at par with other IIMs and in one particular case, the justification was that the institute had actually reduced the fee in 2013 when all the other institutes had hiked it.
Scholarships:
Under such circumstances, scholarships become important. IIM Ahmedabad Director Ashish Nanda claimed that the institute was providing deserving students the “most generous scholarship scheme” among management schools in India. Financial aid would be offered to 251 PGP and PGP-FABM students, about 29 % of the total student strength, he said.
IIMA has a Special Need-Based Scholarship Scheme to complement the various scholarships provided by the industry and government. The scholarship amount is decided on the basis of several criteria such as annual gross family income, ownership of assets, and the number of dependants in the family. Application for these scholarships is invited every year in the month of July. Several commercial banks and financial institutions also provide educational loans to students.
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At IIMC, a number of scholarships sponsored by Aditya Birla Group, Ratan Tata Trust, T. Thomas Scholarship sponsored by HUL, OP Jindal Engineering & Management Scholarship are available for the deserving students on the basis of merit and various criteria stipulated by the sponsors. NTPC awards merit scholarships for deserving SC/ST/PWD students based on the PGP-I result.
IIM Lucknow has instituted scholarships for up to 15% of the student intake based on merit and family income. Any student, including those belonging to the reserved category, whose total annual family income does not exceed Rs.1,50,000/- is eligible for consideration of these scholarships. The awardees are chosen from the eligible candidates in order of merit, for a period of one academic year at a time. The scholarship covers the Tuition fee component of the total fees charged by the Institute in the year awarded, and is subject to maintaining the stipulated standards of academic performance.
