A new batch of budding managers will get into the B-school groove at IIM Calcutta next week with a crash course in space management.

The class of 2009 will have to make do with cramped classrooms and multiple-occupancy lodging despite paying more for an MBA degree — Rs 4.5 lakh a year — than previous batches.

The annual fee may have more than doubled — it was Rs 2 lakh in 2007 — but space has shrunk on the Joka campus because of the quota system that has seen a 36 per cent increase in the number of students over the past two years. The number of freshers this year is 408, up from 318 in 2008.

While the number of seats is set to increase by another 18 per cent in 2010, the infrastructure upgrade needed to comfortably accommodate even this year’s batch is still some distance away from completion.

“We will accommodate the students across our facilities on campus,” said Saibal Chattopadhyay, the dean of programme initiatives.

The “facilities” include the larger rooms in hostels other than those for students of the flagship MBA course and the vacant executive rooms at Tata Hall. All large rooms are being turned into multiple-occupancy student quarters.

The space crunch stems from the delay in completing the hostel complex that was sanctioned last year. Construction of a new academic complex with 14 classrooms is also underway.

“We expect the hostel to be ready by the end of this year. Till then, the students will be provided other accommodation,” said Chattopadhyay.

The new hostel complex will have individual rooms for 168 students.

One of the alternatives the IIM authorities had considered was paying-guest accommodation. But most students said they would prefer staying on the campus. “Classes run till late in the evening and the students also have to do research at the library. So we decided not to look for accommodation outside the campus,” said Chattopadhyay.