IIM fee hike rolled back

Poor students may get full tuition waiver.

The government on Tuesday put an end to a six- month-old controversy by ordering immediate withdrawal of the February 5 directive to slash the fees of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

The order came after all the IIMs agreed to provide scholarships to poor students that might amount to a full tuition fee waiver.

Students, whose annual gross family income is Rs 2 lakh and below, will be eligible for financial assistance amounting "up to a full tuition fee waiver", Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh told reporters after a meeting with chairmen and directors of all the six IIMs here on Tuesday.

Singh attributed the controversy to a "breakdown in communication" between the ministry and the institutes during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime. He said the issue had been settled in the larger public interest while maintaining the autonomy of the institutions. "This will ensure quality education to all students," he said.

Besides the tuition fee waiver, the institutes will also consider, in appropriate cases, waiver of hostel and mess charges. "All institutes will give active assistance and support to students who need to obtain bank loans," Singh said.

All the IIMs would also provide a need-based financial assistance scheme to both the first and second year students, he said, adding there was no limit on the number of students who would get such scholarships.

While the IIMs at Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Bangalore would offer scholarships from their internal resources, those at Indore, Kozhikode and Lucknow would get support from the ministry, Singh said.

He blamed the previous government for the long period of uncertainty at the IIMs and the "unilateral" decision to slash the fees.

"Records suggest that the finance ministry or the internal finance division of the HRD ministry were not consulted before the fee reduction."

The order, passed by the former HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, had reduced the fee from Rs 1.5 lakh per annum to Rs 30,000, leading to a confrontation with the autonomous IIMs, which moved the Supreme Court.

Singh clarified that the government would file an affidavit before the Supreme Court, where a case on the issue is pending. The ministry would communicate to the Supreme Court about the consensus on the issue.

He asserted that the government was fully committed to respecting the autonomy of all the institutes of learning in the country.

Meanwhile, IIM Kolkata has already shortlisted 50 students of the present batch who are eligible for need based scholarships. Sources at the institute said that the scholarships will be met by internal accrual systems or the Rs 85 lakh corpus.