Ranchi, July 20: Wannabe managers and engineers, prepare for pocket pinch.

Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ranchi, and Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra, have punched the fee hike button, making career studies expensive by up to 50 per cent from this academic session.

The postgraduate programme in management at IIM-Ranchi will cost Rs 9 lakh (for two years) from the 2011 academic session, a whopping hike of 50 per cent. In the last session, the fee was Rs 6 lakh.

From now on, a student will pay Rs 1.5 lakh per semester towards tuition fee, room rent, course material and library and computer charges instead of the earlier Rs 1 lakh.

The IIM is also set to start its 18-month postgraduate executive programme in management from this session. Working executives with five years of experience will have to pay Rs 4.5 lakh for the course.

Toeing the elite management cradle, BIT-Mesra too is effecting a 25 per cent hike in fee for its plethora of undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

“We cannot help but increase the charges because we have to meet the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations to hire quality teachers from other government or private colleges,” BIT-Mesra registrar colonel (retd) R.K. Verma told The Telegraph.

Verma further contended that the fee structure at BIT-Mesra had been “traditionally low” compared to technical cradles outside the state. “We have increased course fees by 25 per cent and yet we are not at par with them,” he said.

Between 2007 and 2009, at least half a dozen teachers left the Mesra institution in search of greener pastures, arguably because it had not introduced Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

Verma said the new fee structure would be effective from July 2011. For BE and BPharm studies, the per semester fee is now Rs 65,000 against what what was Rs 75,000 (approximately) for two semesters.

Besides, a student has to pay a one-time admission fee of Rs 5,000 and caution money (refundable) of Rs 10,000. So, in the first semester, a BE or BPharm student ends up paying Rs 80,000.

For bachelor of architecture (BArch), the per semester fee has increased by Rs 5,000. The total semester fee is now Rs 70,000. Bachelor of hotel management and catering technology (BHMCT) students need to pay Rs 60,000 a semester while BSc in food production technology (FPT) will cost Rs 40,000 every six months.

Fees for postgraduate programmes have also increased at BIT-Mesra. The courses include masters in engineering and master in pharmaceutical sciences, besides MTech and MSc programmes.

Notably, another prestigious cradle, Jamshedpur-based XLRI had earlier decided to jack up charges for its two-year postgraduate programmes in business management and human resource management from Rs 8.5 lakh to Rs 9.8 lakh from this academic session.

XLRI’s course fee for one-year general management programme has also been increased to Rs 13.7 lakh from Rs 9.9 lakh, a hike of 40 per cent.