The institute has hiked the PGPM fees for the second consecutive year.
The fees of the two-year course have now been raised to Rs 12.5 lakh from Rs 11.5 lakh, which will be applicable for the incoming batch of 2009-11. A decision in this regard was taken on March 29, when the board of governors reconvened under the chairmanship of Dr Vijaypath Singhania for a second day. The board had reconvened after the meeting held on could not arrive at a decision on the fee issue.
It may be recalled that last year, the IIM-A raised the fees by 200% taking the annual fees from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 11.5 lakh. “Last year, we had decided that the fee for PGPM for 2008-09 would be Rs 5.5 lakh and for 2009-10 it would be Rs 6 lakh. The board today decided that the fee for year 2009-10 for the incoming batch will remain the same,” said IIM-A director Samir Barua soon after the board of governors meeting. “But for the second year, that is 2010-11, the fee will be Rs 6.5 lakh, an increase of Rs 50,000. So the batch of 2009-11 of the PGPM will be paying a maximum of Rs 12.5 lakh for the course,” he said.
The director said that the percentage of fee increase at IIM-A has been significantly lower this year as compared to the fee hikes implemented by other management institutions in the country.
When asked about the rationale behind the hike in the fee, Mr Barua said, “With passage of time the cost of teaching goes up. We have to account for increase in the cost of everything.” After the revision, the fee that was Rs 5.5 lakh for the first year of the programme now stands at Rs 6 lakh, while the second year fees has been raised to Rs 6.5 lakh to the earlier Rs 6 lakh. However, sources in the institute told that the decision to hike the fees at the board meeting was not an unanimous one.
The director said that the Management Development Programme (MDP) which was the major revenue earner for the institute has suffered as the corporate have imposed cuts on their training programmes.
