IIMs to back its needy students

As part of its efforts to ensure a more inclusive educational set up, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have decided to enhance the amount disbursed as scholarships for easing the financial burden shouldered by its needy students.

The substantial increase in tuition fees, which has been made to accommodate the 27 percent increase in the other backward caste quota and a rise in general category seats on the campus, had made the prestigious IIM education unaffordable to many students.

Students are often forced to avail loans for providing the tuition fees of Rs 11 lakh that is presently charged by the institutes for its two-year programme in business management. It should also be noted that, three years ago the tuition fees stood at Rs 4-5 lakh.

According to professor Prashant Mishra of IIM Calcutta financial aid provided by the institutes help the students in many ways. They can either make use of it for higher studies or can even start their own ventures where remuneration might not be good.

Meanwhile, a total of Rs 1.8 crore had been provided as financial aid to students in 2009-10. However, It has been estimated that the total number of students securing financial aid has also increased considerably to 126 during last year. Meanwhile, only twenty-one students had depended on it back in 2007.

The financial aid provided by the institutes for pursuing the business management programme turn out to be crucial for most students since many of them might have already taken loans for doing their graduation courses, which make it impossible to approach banks for this purpose.

Debashish Chatterjee, director of IIM Kozhikode, said that by making the IIM education more comprehensive, social deprivation caused by not being able to associate with the best minds too would be minimised.

While the disbursal figure between 2008 and 2010 has increased from Rs 5 crore to Rs 7.61 crore at IIM Ahmedabad, the institute provides financial aid to more than 250 students for pursing their two-year post graduate programme. IIM Bangalore had also increased its disbursal figures from Rs 1.9 crore in 2008 to Rs 4.4 crore.