Students of IIM Calcutta have sought a fee waiver citing an economy that “looks very grim” and said they were uncertain about job prospects.
In a letter addressed to director Anju Seth, the president of the institute’s student council, Hunar Gandhi, writes: “The situation of the economy looks very grim and the current and the graduating batches may be adversely affected in terms of future prospects. Many of the students avail (of) hefty student loans while others end up spending their savings from previous jobs for this course. While we are managing personal finances in these difficult times, we cannot afford to be paying the same fees for a different and a lesser experience than we signed up for….
“We want the institute to make it good to us at this critical juncture in our lives. We hereby request you to provide relief in the tuition fee and other charges for various facilities that would not be availed (of) by the students.”
Demands for fee waivers were so far limited to schools. The letter by the IIM student council president underscores how deep the impact of the pandemic is on the economy.
Asked whether it was possible for the institute to waive fees, director Seth first told The Telegraph: “I do not want to talk about the fee issue at this point. These are all issues that we have to think extremely carefully, including with the board of governors.”
On Tuesday evening, she wrote a letter to the president of the student council.
The letter, a copy of which she shared with Metro, says among other things: “We know your plans have been altered and you face unforeseen challenges. Your safety is our primary consideration, and we will do our very best to bring students to the IIMC campus at the earliest time with all possible precautions in place…. Given the complexity of the situation and the ever-changing scenario, our plans are necessarily still in flux. Please rest assured that all of us at IIM Calcutta are doing everything possible to facilitate your safe, timely, and successful completion of the MBA program and are devoted to continuing to sustain and grow the excellence of the program in every way possible…. We understand your anxieties and concerns, and hope to provide you with more specifics soon.”
A student of the two-year MBA programme now pays Rs 22 lakh. The fee is payable over six terms.
The amount may not seem much when compared with the salaries a large section of fresh graduates gets. “Now, the students are concerned about how they would repay their loan as the job prospects are grim,” said an official at the business school.
Classes for the second year were supposed to start on June 6. But students have been home since March because of the lockdown.
Gandhi’s letter says: “As we are past the time of the year when the various batches would usually begin classes, students are getting concerned, impatient, and a bit apprehensive. Student council members have been addressing many of the student queries, however an official update from (the) administration at this point would be much appreciated.”
The batch that will graduate in 2021 — Gandhi belongs to this batch - has 480 students. Sources on the campus said around 90 per cent of them have taken a loan to fund their education.
The fee includes the hostel charge. A student said if the authorities were unsure about whether students would be allowed to stay in the hostels because of the pandemic, they should waive the hostel charge. Another student said: “Besides, the authorities had fixed the cost of the programme factoring in that this is an on-campus programme. If that were not the case, the fee structure needs to be rationalised.”
A teacher said the concerns stemmed from the fact that a recruiter had in April revoked six job offers to students of the 2020 batch. “Some recruiters have rescinded summer internship offers for the 2021 batch.”
