Mumbai: A rapid spurt in the number of MBA aspirants, fees at top B-schools sky-rocketing and a decline in the distribution of scholarships on campuses has made an MBA degree more knotty for a young Indian population.
According to reports, The Indian School of Business (ISB) recently hiked its fee for an MBA degree to Rs 24 lakh. The IIMs followed suit raising their fees citing rising costs and decline in the government funds, a report in The Times of India said. With the hike in the fees , almost one in every three students is unable to pay the fees and needs to secure loans or scholarships, said a faculty member.
Besides the rise in the fee structure, scholarships too have taken a hit, much to the chagrin of meritorious students who cannot afford the high fee structure of top B-schools. Reports say that in 2009-10, IIM-Ahmedabad gave scholarships amounting to Rs 8.3 crore on the basis of annual family income. The figure has now been halved.
During the previous year, 239 students got scholarships and the college disbursed around Rs 4.8 crore to the students. For 2016-17, financial help is being offered to 29 per cent of the total strength of students, i.e., 251 PGP and PGPFABM students.
At IIM-Bangalore too, a total of 45 students of the 414 in the 2015-17 batch were provided with financial aid.Only eight students got 100 per cent tuition fee waiver for the full course of two years.
The Indian School of Business (ISB) on Thursday defended its fee hike, saying there will also be an increase in the number of scholarships at the institute from 10 per cent to 15 per cent for the coming batch.
"While we had a marginal increase last year, this is the first significant fee hike in the last four years. We feel it is time for a correction," said Prof Dishan Kamdar, deputy dean (academic programmes), ISB.
Institutes too walk a thin rope, feel experts. Former IIM Kozhikode director Debashis Chatterjee, who is now a tenured professor of Human Resources Management at IIMLucknow, said, "Increasing fees is not a sustainable way to build corpus and meet the demands of the future."
"At the same time, there is no denying the fact that costs are increasing and capital expenses are huge.But institutes must devise innovate ways to raise money."he added.
Notably, there has been a big fall in the scholarships distribution at most top schools. IIM-Indore awarded need-based scholarships worth Rs 162.9 scholarships worth Rs 162.9 lakh to 53 candidates in 2012-13, but in 2014-15 the number has been dropped to Rs 114.1 lakh given to 42 students.
According to an official, the fees of IIM-C has increased by over 17 per cent. "IIM-C had no option over 17%. IIM-C had no option but to go for a such extreme hike,” he said, adding that the institute has had to increase salaries of professors and also take into account the basic inflation. Besides, the cost of maintenance has increased and the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations still need to be implemented.
Meanwhile, the government has come out to help and has given aid to 22 SC/ST students by providing them with need-based scholarships. IIM-A has claimed that it had kept aside Rs 6 crore for scholarships, but handed out aid worth Rs 4.8 crore as the remaining burden was borne by the Centre.
