IIM-A plans to hike fees

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad is planning to hike fees for its one-year post-graduate programme in management for executives for the year 2007 and double the number of students admitted in each batch, IIMA Director Bakul Dholakia said.

The selection process for the first-batch of the programme, scheduled to begin in April 2006, has been completed, he said.

"We received about 770 applications, out of which 71 offers were made. Sixty-seven candidates have accepted the offer of which 40 per cent are candidates residing outside India," he added.

"At present IIMA is charging $19,000 for the programme," Dholakia said adding that leading global institutions like Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology fees ranged between $35,000-55,000 for a similar programme.

However, Dholakia said the institute was planning to hike the fees for the PGPX from the second batch in 2007 from present Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

Dholakia also said that seeing the overwhelming response to the course, the institute has decided to double the number of seats for the second batch of the course in 2007.