The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is likely to ‘defer’ the 175-per cent fee hike and other related decisions it announced recently for the 2008-10 session of the flagship, two-year Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management.

Admissions were to begin on April 11 but are yet to start in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in favour of 27 per cent reservation granted recently to the OBCs, except the “creamy layers”. Now, with the possibility of the fee-hike being ‘deferred’ also emerging, it is still not clear when the admissions would begin.

The R.C. Bhargava Committee, appointed by the Centre to review the functioning of the IIMs, is coming here on April 25 to study the issue, an IIM-A spokesperson said on Monday. Also, the Board of Governors of IIM-A, headed by noted industrialist Mr Vijaypat Singhania, is likely to meet on April 26 itself, to take a decision, according to sources familiar with the development.

When contacted, the IIM-A Director, Mr S.K. Barua, declined to comment, saying he was busy in a meeting. An IIM-A spokesperson said he was “out of town”. According to sources, the Bhargava Committee has asked the Government for a freeze on the fees for the courses offered by the IIMs till it submits its final report.

The Committee submitted its interim report on April 4, recommending that the Government direct the IIMs to defer any increase in fee and keep it at the level of December, 2007, till the final report was submitted.

The Union Minister of State for HRD, Ms D. Purandeswari, told the Rajya Sabha as much in a written reply on Monday. The panel, which forwarded its interim report to the IIMs as well, had said the fee to be charged could not be more than Rs 3 lakh a year till it submits its final report to the Government.

While all the IIMs have proposed hike in fees, the IIM-A had announced the steepest increase of 175 per cent for the PGP, from the current Rs 2 lakh a year to Rs 5.5 lakh in the first year and to Rs 6 lakh for the second year.

On April 3, the IIM-A had said that after extensive discussions, the Board of Governors had “unanimously” decided to increase the fees for PGP to a total of Rs 11.50 lakh from the existing Rs 4 lakh. Out of this amount, the tuition fee was Rs 4.5 lakh and the remaining was for teaching material, boarding and lodging, and other expenses.

The IIM-A Board had also decided to treble the annual family income limit from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 6 lakh for a student to be eligible for financial support and directed the institute to formulate a graded, need-based, financial aid scheme for such students.

Source : Business Line