http://education.in.msn.com/news/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3982478

Around 18 students at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A)’s post-graduate programme (PGP) 2010-12 batch may get to study without paying a single penny to the premier institute this year.

While IIMs have been consistently hiking tuition fees for the two-year post graduate programmes (PGPs), they have simultaneously attempted to lower the financial burden for deserving students by increasing the disbursal of scholarships and tuition fee waivers.

In financial year 2009-10, a total of 41 students were educated at

IIM-A absolutely free. Of these, around 20 students of were doing their first year.

"There are 171 applicants for the fee waiver system this year based on the claim that their family income is below Rs 6,00,000. Out of these, 18 may be fully exempted from paying any fee. However, these numbers are tentative and not supported by the necessary documents by the students so far. Once we have the documents in place to go with the claims, the final numbers may increase or decrease," says Ajay Pandey, chairperson, PGP at IIM-A.

IIM-A raised its fees for its PGP 2010-12 batch by Rs 1,20,000, a jump of 9.6 per cent as compared to the 2009-11 batch. The fee, which was Rs 12.5 lakh for the 2009-11 batch has been revised to Rs 13.7 lakh for the incoming batch.

The batch will be paying Rs 6.6 lakh for the first year and the balance for the second year.

A student with family income less than Rs 1,00,000 per annum is entitled to the privilege of 100 per cent fee waiver and free of cost education. For students whose family income is more than Rs 1,00,000 but less than Rs 6,00,000 , the fee waiver varies. Those with family income exceeding Rs 6,00,000 per annum have to pay the full amount of fee.