The Hindu Business Line : IIM-C to stick to old fee structure

THE governing board of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) has decided to continue with the old course fee structure for the academic year beginning this month.

The board, which met here on Friday at ITC Sonar Bangla, also decided to provide scholarship / financial assistance to the students, who had fulfilled the entrance criteria, but whose annual family income was less than Rs 2 lakh.

Prof Shekhar Chaudhury, Director of the institute, said at an official briefing that the financial assistance would be more need-based against the previous practice of giving priority to merit and then need.

He, however, clarified that a student has to consistently fulfil the academic performance during the tenure of the course to be eligible for assistance, which would be available in the first and second academic years.

The assistance would be in the form of waiver of the complete tuition fee of Rs 98,000 for each academic year.

A provision for special assistance in case of certain "deserving" students has been made. The general fee for a student, like in 2003-04, would be Rs 1.27 lakh for each academic year.

The board has also proposed to increase the placement charges to generate more revenue. However, the quantum of the increase would be decided later.

Today's board decision in a way puts a lid on the controversy over reduction of fees, which was sought by the previous Union HRD Minister Mr Murli Manohar Joshi.

However, the inter-related issues such as uniformity of fees among the six IIMs in the country, non-plan grants from the Union Government and pending cases in the Supreme Court would be addressed later. All the IIMs will communicate to the HRD Ministry their decision before June 25.

Meanwhile, the faculty council of IIM-C has decided not to withdraw its case challenging the validity of the March 26 governing board meeting.

According to sources, the IIM-C, following the sanction letter, has received Rs 4 crore as non-plan grant from the HRD Ministry for 2003-04.

The money, however, has been kept in a short-term deposit account and its usage or return to the government would depend on resolution of the financial grants issue.