The Hindu Business Line : Why fee-cut at IIM is bad

When the need of the hour is to make enhanced provisions for basic and primary education, it is ironic that the Centre is keen on subsidising higher education.

THE first round in the IIM fee episode has gone the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, way, with the Supreme Court questioning the locus standi of the petitioners and asking for a break up of the fee structure.

But does it vindicate his proposal to slash the fees for courses at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM)to Rs 30,000 a year that has kicked up a huge, nation-wide row?

The premise for pruning the fee structure is that the cost to society on an IIM student is Rs 3 lakh and that of an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) student Rs 1.5 lakh and that the benefit from such students to society is disproportionate to the cost.

If the Minister has in mind the droves of engineers and management graduates emigrating to greener pastures after making full use of the services provided by the Government and the institutions here, he may be mistaken because in a globalising and liberalising world markets are opening up everywhere and India's centres of educational excellence can be in demand only if they maintain quality; opportunities are sure to knock at their doors soon enough.

The economic reforms have unleashed the entrepreneurial spirit and a swathe of industries has become competitive in price, quality and delivery of goods, especially abroad.

The centres of management and technology learning are partly instrumental in this process of promoting a Brand India image for a variety of products, in the process giving their alumnus also an international recognition.

Little wonder that even as liberalisation of trade in services is still under way, countries such as Singapore, Sri Lanka and other countries are sending out feelers for replicating the IIM/IITs.

The Manipal Academy of Higher Education, the pioneer private medical college with the fee structure even for Indian students "marked to market", leave aside the higher fees for non-resident Indians and students of foreign origin, has already replicated its experiment, and runs medical colleges in Oman, Nepal and some South-East Asian countries.

The IIMs, the IITs and MAHE may be exceptions rather than the rule because these institutions blossomed after years of development. In the case of the IIMs and the IITs the role of the Government and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is considerable.

IIM students have done the country proud, and there is ever-great demand for them. The entry into the prestigious course is entirely merit based, and the kind of talent the IIMs attract is the obvious envy of other centres of learning because professors do not dissipate their energies on reluctant students.

That is why legions of middle-class people hanker after admission to these institutions to ensure a sound career for their children. With loans for pursuit of education available at reasonable rates, many a parent makes it a point to see that his ward gets into the best course and the best institute, which offer such a course. Ergo the rush for IITs and IIMs.

It may not be off the mark to recall that the development of management education in the country took off only after Independence. The lead in management education was taken by the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, Calcutta, offering postgraduate diploma in 1954. In 1957, the All India Management Association (AIMA) was created as an apex body with the Centre's active support. The AICTE set up an expert committee to look into the possibility of starting management courses in universities and other educational bodies in the early 1950s. Based on the recommendations of the AICTE, the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, was established in 1956 as a joint venture between the Union government and private industries.

The establishment of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC) in 1961 and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) in 1962, the the management divisions at the Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur, in 1966 and the full-time MBA programme by Delhi and Bombay Universities set a strong foundation for management education. IIM Bangalore was established in 1973 followed by one in Lucknow, in 1984. IIM Calicut began functioning in 1997 and IIM Indore in 1998.

As the Prof U. R. Rao, Chairman, AICTE Review Committee reportsaid, management education has indeed leapfrogged in recent years, with over 930 institutions now.

Even as Dr Joshi wants the the IIM fee structure altered to benefit a larger number of students who cannot afford this expensive course, the U. R. Rao Committee had emphatically noted that quality norms, standards and accreditation of the entire management education system whether under the universities or in postgraduate diploma institutions of management should be the concern of the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

That many parents and students have fallen victims to the false claims of several private management institutions is well known.

Instead of cracking down on such institutions, Dr Joshi may end up emasculating the standards in the existing centres of excellence by bringing in the subsidy slogan at a time when the country is in the election mode.

In 1999, Dr Joshi had told a magazine in an interview that "the BJP has the courage to push for cutting subsidies in higher education but other parties oppose us". In less than four years he has changed his view on higher education and wants to make the part-government-funded institutions, such as the IIMs, slash students fee for no real reason.

Ironically, when the need of the hour is to make enhanced provisions for basic and primary education so as to bring greater number of poor and rural children to school and minimise the dropout rate at the primary and secondary level, the authorities seem keen on subsidising higher education.

This will have the deleterious effect on the psyche of people besides a meltdown in the morale of the venerable institutions such as the IIMs. Institution-building is a Sisyphean task but it is easier to bring down the credibility and popularity of such institutions by ill-conceived ideas that can do lasting damage to their reputation.

By suggesting a fee-slash in the premier institutes, the Minister appears oblivious to the reality of how the rest of the world will view this move even as the aspirant students, who not only seek but deserve quality education feel let down as their desire for the best educational course, feel let down.

India's foray into services exports will be ill-starred if populism takes precedence over prudence by the political leaders who seem to have partisan views with no perspective of such "intangible" assets as brand name and reputation of institutions of higher learning.

Even as the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, talks about catapulting the country into the league of developed world through the competitive advantage of knowledge power — the superiority in software technology is the best example for this — the attempt to bring down the image of technical and professional courses under the garb of egalitarianism in education is but deplorable.

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