Jamshedpur, April 3: Aspiring management students of the state will have to dig deeper into their purses to step into the hallowed portals of XLRI School of Management (Jamshedpur) and Xavier Institute of Social Service (Ranchi).

The top two management institutes in the state have decided to toe the line of the IIMs and implement a fee hike from the next academic session.

While the XLRI School of Management has decided to increase the annual fees for its two-year postgraduate programmes in business management and personnel management and industrial relations (PM&IR), XISS will increase the fees for personnel management, rural development and information management.

The board of governors of XLRI has decided to raise the fees from Rs 2.95 lakh to Rs 3.05 lakh, a jump of Rs 10,000, for its postgraduate programmes, which is about 36 per cent of the average pay package of an XLRI graduate this year (Rs 8.5 lakh per annum).

XLRI officials said the fee structure is being revised after a gap of two years. Describing the hike as “affordable”, chairperson (admissions) of XLRI Sanjay Patro said: “The hike comes after the board took into consideration the cost of providing education to postgraduate students.”

However, he added that no change has been made in the concessions given to students hailing from the lower strata of the society. SC/ST students, whose parents’ annual income does not cross Rs 1 lakh a year will continue to enjoy a 25 per cent tuition fee waiver.

Fees at XISS, however, will take a leap of around Rs 15,000.

“The proposal will be approved by the governing body soon. The hike will be commensurate the expenditures to be incurred towards the enhanced salary payment to faculty members and infrastructure development in the next two years,” Father Benni Ekka, director of XISS, said.

According to him, the personnel management course, the oldest among other courses, now costs about Rs 1.13 lakh while the other two flagship courses ? rural development and information management ? now cost Rs 1.14 lakh and Rs 1.22 lakh, respectively.

Meanwhile, sources in the state science and technology department said a committee on fee fixation, headed by former high court judge Gurusharan Sharma, has recommended that the state government assess if the fee structure is in keeping with the infrastructure and facilities provided by various private engineering and management institutions across Jharkhand.