The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

IIM fee slashed

If it might be of foreign interest, India's much prized and vaunted Indian Institute of Management (IIM), which I am sure finds representation in the most envious of US corporations more than in India itself, has been forced to slash its tuition fee from Rs.1, 50,000 per student to just Rs.30,000 per student.

This happened less than a week ago and its grown into a ruccus with the Ministry of Human Resource pressing the fee reduction in the wake of recent elections. On the other hand, surprisingly or not, none of the IIM students welcome the fee reduction. They're in fact protesting against it.

The govt. has the authority to dictate fee because it funds the institution. When all the students (100% strength) submitted a writ petition against the govt., the Supreme Court of India today asked IIM to justify their premium of Rs.1.5 lakh.

I, for one, am in favour of the fee reduction because it'd allow many people to afford quality education.

These IIMers lay claim that the level of service they receive might just deteriorate with the fee cut.

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Is IIM the place with the building designed by architect Louis Kahn?

off topica
Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Sure thing it is!

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Cool. I'm not sure what I can add to this discussion. But I saw a movie about louis kahn this weekend and that building seemed nice. Now I need to go get some coffee.

off topica
Tuesday, February 17, 2004

You can start with what coffee you like, and I'll take it to the number of baristas in Barista from IIM. :)

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Tuesday, February 17, 2004

I have to wonder... why on earth would the students want to pay a higher tuition? Is it because they don't want the just-as-able but not-as-wealthy to be able to get the education and compete for their jobs?

I hope that there's some other reason I'm not catching... I'm about to drown in the irony otherwise.

Greg Hurlman
Tuesday, February 17, 2004

As we have said before on this board, India is an intensely elitist society. The privileged sons and daughters of Brahmins don't want just anybody gaining the ability to get high paying jobs in the international economy.

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Im _really_ liking the indian government, its making a lot of decisions these days that show a deep commonsense and humanity.

go the indian economy!

FullNameRequired
Tuesday, February 17, 2004

---"I hope that there's some other reason I'm not catching... I'm about to drown in the irony otherwise. "---

I think somebody else explained it above. They are worried that the quality of tuition will decline dramatically. In order to get the same amount of money from tuition fees the IIM will have to accept five times as many students. Also considering that graduates are almost guarranteed a high-paying job in India or abroad, and that 1.5 lakh rupees is only $3000, you can see why they are more worried about loss of reputation than saving money on the fees.

---"Im _really_ liking the indian government, its making a lot of decisions these days that show a deep commonsense and humanity."-----

Bully for you Full Name! We need somebody to counter cynics like me who see it as no more than a populist ploy in election year.

Stephen Jones
Tuesday, February 17, 2004

I assure you the decision for a fee reduction is one instigated by a political clout with elections cornered. The IIMers backlash is fascists' snobbery fearing dilution of their fraternity, much ill-founded is their fear of the government taking over dogmatic governance over their alma mater, and the imminent undermining of their job prospects following the dilution of their creed.

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Something's happened to your English this mornng!

I don't see what is wrong with elitism. The IIM has built up a fearful reputation. Why risk it? If the government wants to extend the technical tertiary education field create new institutions.

Morevoer, if the slashing of the fees means that the government is making up the shortfall, and thus there will be no need to increase numbers, then it is basically a middle class subsidy. And there are plenty of reasons to be afraid of government funding!

Stephen Jones
Friday, February 20, 2004

Well they should slash the fees. The goal of IIMs is to create greedy money chasers after all. Read
(http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2004/mar/29guest.htm)

Arpita Kollamadi
Tuesday, June 1, 2004