| Monday, April 21, 2008
Fee hike by IIMs and IITs: is there a strong case?
The sudden changes and announcements in the fee structure once
again pose the question, is higher education in India affordable?
Amidst the controversy surrounding the fee hikes announced by
various Indian Institutes of Management, the Indian Institutes
of Technology have jointly mooted a proposal to double the fees
for IIT-JEE, the entrance examination for admission to the IITs.
While the Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad decided
to increase its fee by over 200 per cent in March, after announcing
a smaller hike in February, IIM-B and other IIMs announced relatively
less steep hikes.
The sudden changes and announcements in the fee structure
have once again put forth the question of affordability of
higher education in India.
While on the one hand several people are of the opinion that
it does not pay to over-subsidise any course, others argue
that this will set a bad precedent for other institutes, thereby
making higher education further unaffordable.
With the booming economy, the rush to these institutes of
excellence rises and increasing the fees might restrict several
aspirants. However, experts and even students argue that given
the huge pay packets and placement benefits, even a hundred
per cent increase would not deter any student. An engineering
degree in all seven IITs — Kharagpur, Mumbai, Chennai,
Delhi, Kanpur, Guwahati and Roorkee — now costs about
Rs. 25,000 per annum as fees. If the increase is implemented
a student will pay Rs. 2 lakh for the entire course.
“Given that at the end of the course we will get a minimum
salary of Rs. 6 lakh per annum, it does not seem to be too
much of a problem. Payment seats in all other colleges already
cost that much,” says Vikram S., an engineering aspirant.
However, he agrees that loans may not be accessible to everyone.
Though most banks will easily give a loan of up to Rs. 7 lakh
for education in India and no bank will refuse a loan to an
IIT student, experts say that it could deter a student from
an economically weak background from applying..
“Things have changed but I would not have wanted to
start my life with a loan. Institutes must go out of the way
to make sure that no student is denied the right to education,”
says M.S. Thimmappa, an academician and ex-Vice-Chancellor
of Bangalore University. As an academic he is also of the
opinion that by and large higher education is highly subsidised
and does not cover even 20 per cent of the costs.
“Those who can afford should pay the full fee and considering
our social context these institutes should put the affluent
on a different platform. Others should be given affordable
and subsidised education.”
“Actually, these guys earn an average salary of Rs.
6 lakh when they pass out of IITs and a few talented ones
may take home as much as Rs. 15 lakh. People know the value
of the education that they will be getting and do not mind
paying for that,” says Jaideep Singh Chowdhary, project
head of Triumphant Institute of Management Education. Though
he says that he comes across several aspirants who may have
a cash inflow problem, loans are easily available.
Flawed evaluation
Mr. Chowdhary says that there are greater issues at hand as
far as education in the IITs is concerned. With IIT-JEE scheduled
to be held on April 13, there are a few problems that may
be detrimental to the spirit of the examination. While cut-offs
have been lower in the past year, Mr. Chowdhary says that
the system of evaluation that was adopted in 2007 and will
be carried on to this year is flawed.
“To make it clearer, compared to IIMs where you need
to be among the top 80 per cent to qualify, irrespective of
your totals, in the IIT-JEE it is around 20 per cent to qualify,”
he says. “A student can get away by concentrating on
two subjects and not being extraordinarily proficient in the
third.”
While IIM-Ahmedabad has decided to increase the fee from the
current Rs. 5 lakh for both the years of the course to Rs
11.5 lakh, IIM-Bangalore will increase its fee to Rs. 9 lakh
from Rs. 5 lakh. IIM-Kolkata has decided to increase the fee
to Rs. 6 lakh for the entire course from Rs. 3.75 lakh.
IIM-Kozhikode has decided to increase the fee to Rs. 6 lakh
for the two-year programme from Rs. 3.85 lakh. Regarding the
statements issued by the Ministry of Human Resource Development
about the fee hike, Pankaj Chandra, Director of Indian Institute
of Management-Bangalore, said that he had not received any
communication and that it was not applicable to IIM-B.
IIM-Ahmedabad had raised its fee by Rs. 1 lakh in February
and again in March. “We had got our hike pre-approved
and there should not be any change in our announced fee structure.”
“I think the institute is undergoing massive expansion
in terms of faculty, infrastructure and facilities provided.
It is but natural that such a hike would come around,”
says Aditya Kasyap, a first year student at IIM-Bangalore.
“If I had to take a bigger loan, I would be able to
manage but for those who cannot afford it the institute goes
out of the way to provide financial support,” he explains.
The financial assistance provided to students in the programme
has been increased from Rs. 91.13 lakh to Rs. 1.5 crore.
CAT to go online
The IIMs are considering conducting the Common Aptitude Test
for management aspirants online.
“The exam will be conducted as usual this year.
The online test is something that has been discussed and we
are looking to see if it is feasible.
The Directors of all IIMs are exploring the possibilities
and admissions for 2009 will certainly not be online,”
said Prof. Pankaj Chandra.
Meanwhile, coaching institutes such as IMS have said that
students have expressed apprehension over the supposed move
and enquired if the coaching centres will provide training
in this new mode.
“Obviously there will be an issue related to reliability
and viability of the tests,” said Ajay Arora, Regional
Director of Triumphant Institute of Management Education. The
test will be conducted in different phases, not on the same
day.
“This itself will create some apprehension since it
will be difficult to ensure that difficulty levels will be
same.
Courtesy: The Hindu - Education Plus |
