Calcutta, April 3: The fee hike has set the cat among the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

IIM Calcutta has disclosed that the institutes in Ahmedabad and Bangalore had reneged on an understanding and stepped up fees far beyond the figure of consensus.

The Calcutta business school is now considering a fresh look at the fee for the post-graduate programme in management.

“The steep fee hikes by IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore came as a big surprise. It was completely unexpected, especially because there was a general consensus to keep the fees more or less uniform for all the IIMs,” said Shekhar Chaudhuri, director, IIM Calcutta.

On February 26, the institute had decided to raise the fee for the two-year course to Rs 7 lakh from Rs 4 lakh. Subsequently, IIM Ahmedabad raised its fee to Rs 11.5 lakh from Rs 4.50 lakh and Bangalore to Rs 8 lakh from Rs 5 lakh.

Sources in other IIMs, including Ahmedabad and Bangalore, confirmed that the directors of the six B-schools had decided to peg the hiked fee at Rs 7.5 lakh for the post-graduate management course.

“After IIM Ahmedabad decided to increase its annual fees to Rs 3 lakh we also decided, after calculating costs, to increase it to Rs 3 lakh in 2008-2009 and further increase it to Rs 4 lakh in 2009-2010,” said Chaudhuri, expressing surprise at the deviation from the agreement.

Although he declined to comment on the possibility of another fee hike, sources in IIM Calcutta hinted that a decision would be taken at the board of governors meeting scheduled for April 5.

Chaudhuri’s expression of “surprise” was echoed by at least two other directors and senior officials across IIMs in Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode.

“We had agreed to a fee hike based on what was needed to build infrastructure, and for our growth. The plan was for a much more moderate fee hike,” one of the two directors said.

Another IIM director said it appeared as though IIM Ahmedabad and Bangalore had come to the joint meeting of the directors having already fixed their fee hike. “That is their attitude. It is sad but true,” he rued.

The institutes usually take a collective decision on such issues, including admissions and increases in the number of seats, though divisions had surfaced on OBC quotas.

Two years ago, the directors had decided to peg the annual fees at Rs 2 lakh. “But last year, IIM Bangalore breached the agreement and raised the annual fees to Rs 2.5 lakh. This time, both IIM Ahmedabad and Bangalore have gone back on their promise,” said a faculty member at IIM Calcutta.

The sources said they expected the fee hike to top the agenda of the April 5 meeting of the board, the highest decision-making body of the institute.

“Earlier, we decided to increase the fees from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 7 lakh, but no formal announcement was made. So, we can go in for a further hike to prove the point that we can also raise the bar and yet attract the best brains,” a faculty member said.

An alternative strategy is also doing the rounds on the Joka campus.

“We can even slash the fees to make the point that we can offer quality education at an affordable price,” a faculty member said.

(With inputs from Charu Sudan Kasturi in New Delhi)