TNN

Bangalore, Mar 26: The buzz was around long before, so the hike in fees, though steep, at IIM-Bangalore, came as no surprise. On Tuesday, IIM-B director Pankaj Chandra said the fees would be hiked from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh for 2008-2009.

Next year, the fees will be raised to Rs 5 lakh. That is, the same students who will be going into the second year, will have to pay this increased amount. The decision was taken after a meeting of the Board which was presided over by its chairman Mukesh Ambani. The meeting was followed by the 33rd annual IIM-B convocation.

The hike makes IIM-B's the highest among the top IIMs for both 2008 and 2009. Both IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Kolkata hiked it from Rs 2 lakh last year to Rs 3 lakh this year. In 2009, the fee will be further hiked to 4 lakh at both the institutes.

Defending the hike, Pankaj Chandra said increasing infrastructure was one of the main reasons for it. In an earlier interview with TOI, he had explained that IIM-B was thinking of the hike because Bangalore was an expensive city. Whether it was infrastructure or housing or building an auditorium, the costs were much higher than in Kolkata or Ahmedabad.

On March 11, HRD minister Arjun Singh said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that the boards of governors of the IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata had decided to raise the fees for the post-graduate programme from the coming year.

Students who were aware of the hike seem to be unperturbed by it. Manu Midha S from Bangalore who successfully cleared the CAT in November 2008 and got calls from all six IIMs said: "Financial assistance is easily available at banks.

We know that higher education at IITs and IIMs is subsidized. It is not right to subsidize it further." Echoing similar views, Pradeep B S, who got calls from IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Lucknow and IIM-Kozhikode said: “don’t think it's a big deal.