The Hindu Business Line : Fee reduction — How will IIMs bridge the revenue loss?

IT has been an eventful year for the IIMs. A time when they have had to shield blows at regular intervals. And now, when they are just recovering from the exam paper leak scandal, the Union Minister for Human Resources, Mr Murli Manohar Joshi, has rocked them once more with the possibility of a drastic fee reduction (from about Rs 1.5 lakh a year to about Rs 20,000 a year).

The question being asked is: How will the institutes make good the loss in revenue? If the impending fee reduction is implemented, can the institutes increase the number of executive education programmes?

In 2003-04, IIM's revenue from tuition fees read something like this: From the PG Programme in Management Course - Rs 485.45 lakh, PG Programme in Public Policy Management - Rs 52.20 lakh, PG Programme in Software Management - Rs 168.91 lakh.

During the same period, revenue accrued from 70 executive education programmes was about Rs 651.56 lakh, almost equal to that of the tuition fees.

According to Prof V. Nagadevara, Chairperson, Executive Education, IIM, Bangalore, "It is not a feasible idea to increase the number of corporate training programmes as the professors are hard pressed for time."

Last year, the institute conducted 32 open programmes, 12 corporate partnership programmes, 20 customised programmes and six international programmes. In addition to this, there were 11 short duration programmes by the Centre for Public Policy. For this year, the institute has scheduled 43 open programmes.

There are about 400 students in the PG Diploma course, about 300 students in the PGSM and about 40 PhD students who need three guides for four years. And about 2,000 odd executives get trained every year. "All this with just 70 professors. Now how can we increase the number of programmes?" asked Prof Nagadevara.

The directors of the institute were however, unwilling to commit themselves on the issue. Dr Prakash G. Apte, Director, IIM, Bangalore, said, "I can't really say anything till the Government sends us some sort of communication."

Prof Bakul Dholakia expressed the same view. Sources at the institute revealed that at this point of time, the institutes are nonplussed and in a limbo.

Meanwhile, in a poll conducted by the Student Council of IIM, Calcutta, on the fee reduction issue, students were asked to comment on whether they thought the current fee structure is unaffordable. 299 said "No" and 79 said "Yes". And to the question, Do you support the Government's decision to drastically reduce fees, 330 said " No" and 41 said "Yes".

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