Fee hike on IIMA board's aganda but Murthy non-commital

Ahmedabad, Apr 1 (UNI) Increasing fees for post-graduate programme (PGP) of the premier Indian Institute of Management is high on the agenda of the institute's board of governors meeting here tomorrow but IIMA chairman N R Narayana Murthy was non-commital on the issue.

Mr Narayana Murthy, the Infosys fhief had been clamouring for more autonomy and fee hike for quite some time, today remained commited on the autonomy issue but evaded the issue of fee hike, saying it is for the board to decide. IIMA director Bakul Dholakia, too, has been asking for fee hike and more autonomy.

The fee-hike issue has been dogging the IIMA ever since Union Ministry of Human Resource Development had frozen its annual grants for PGP, a two-year residential flagship course equivalent to MBA, a decade ago.

Mr Murthy also stressed on the need to increase the strength and salary of the faculty to attract the best talent.

IIMA sources said if the board decides to hike fees for the two-year PGP, it could be implemented only for the batch beginning June 2007 as it has to be notified in the prospectus for the Common Admission Test (CAT) held eight months before the admission.

Dr Dholakia said IIMA spends about Rs 3.50 lakh per year on each student of PGP, while the present fee is Rs 1.58 lakh per year, excluding internship and students exchange programme.

IIMA cross-subsidise the PGP course by earnings from short-term management development programmes (MDPs) for professionals and from research and consultancy by the faculty.

Meanwhile, Mr Narayana Murthy will also inaugurate tomorrow the one-year condensed MBA residential course for professionals with over 5-7 years experience, called post-graduate programme for executives (PGPX).

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