The Hindu Business Line : IIMs agree on common proposal for fee structure

THE directors of the six IIMs, who met here to give shape to a common proposal regarding the fees to be charged for the coming academic year, have arrived at a consensus.

A uniform fee structure by the six institutions as desired by the Union HRD Ministry may be on the cards, though the IIM directors refused to share details of the proposal, stating that it would first have to be discussed with the Secretary, Ministry of HRD, on Tuesday.

All the directors reiterated that there remained no differences between them on the fee issue after the day's meeting.

Also, they stated categorically that there was going to be a single proposal by the constituents and not six different proposals, though they maintained that one could not jump the gun and give details before the Ministry ratifies the proposal.

As things stand today, only the IIMs of Ahmedabad and Bangalore have decided against effecting a lowering of the existing annual fee of Rs 1,58,350 to Rs 30,000 as directed by the former Union HRD Minister, Mr Murli Manohar Joshi.

A PIL is pending before the Supreme Court on the fee cut issue specifically and the autonomy of the institutes, per se, at a broader level.

Clearly, a fine balancing act will have to be carried out between a certain fee on one hand and a structured scholarship on the other to economically needy students.

"It is only the IIMs of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Lucknow that currently have scholarships going for the students," said Prof Bakul Dholakia, Director, IIM-A.

Thus, whether it is a uniform fee structure with a uniform scholarship plan or a graded fee structure with variable scholarships, the question being raised is whether any such move to come under a common umbrella under the Ministry would not tantamount to the surrendering of IIM autonomy.

The answer will be clear only when details of the uniform proposal by the six IIMs are made public.

Once the nod is given by the Ministry, the proposal is to be put up before the board of directors in time to meet the June 25 deadline indicated by the Union HRD Minister, Mr Arjun Singh, to resolve the fee issue once and for all.

This date is crucial, as classes for the 2004-06 batch Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) students will begin on June 26.

The first IIM governing board that will get a chance to have a look at the Ministry-ratified proposal on the fee structure would be Indore, on June 14 followed by the IIMs of Kolkata (June 18), Ahmedabad and Kozhikode (June 19), Bangalore (June 21) and Lucknow (June 23).