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Ahmedabad: A top Indian management institute has said it will implement from this year the backward classes quota ordained by the government, but will not roll back a fee hike.
Samir Barua, Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), told reporters here yesterday that the fee structure as decided in March would stay. He was briefing reporters about a meeting of the institute's board of directors.
The IIMA board had hiked the fees for the first year to Rs550,000 (Dh50,000) and for the second year to Rs600,000 for the batch joining from June 2008.
The average fees for the other backward class students in the "non-creamy layer" category would come down due to the graded fee structure which has been introduced only by the IIMA, he said.
On admissions in the general category, Barua said it was expected to begin from May 1, and said it would take at least two weeks to implement the backward classes quota.
IIMA is providing a graded fee structure keeping in mind poorer students and loans would be made available through the institute, Barua said.
"We have held talks with four public sector banks and one private bank, and all have agreed to give the entire fee amount as loan with a moratorium that the fee repayment will begin at a later stage. There will be no margins and the loans come with an attractive rate of interest," he said.
"The problem for those parents whose annual income is less that Rs250,000 has been taken care of since education loans have been arranged. One problem parents faced was bringing a guarantor. Even this has been taken care of. A student can now stand guarantor for another," Barua said. For the first year (2008 batch) six per cent seats would be added in the 'other backward classes' quota and a similar number in the general quota as per the court order. Six per cent of the total 280 seats works out to 17.
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