Calcutta, Jan. 31: The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, will consider a proposal for a Rs 25,000 fee hike for its flagship two-year postgraduate management programme.

“The decision will be taken when the board (of governors) meets in a couple of days,” said Anindya Sen, dean, programme initiatives, IIM Calcutta.

If the board approves the proposal, the hike — from Rs 1.75 lakh, the fees would then be Rs 2 lakh a year — will come into effect from the academic session starting June 2007.

With the central grant to the six IIMs dwindling over the years, the premier B-schools have been planning a fee hike for some time.

IIM Bangalore has already announced a hike in annual fees from Rs 1.75 lakh to Rs 2 lakh with effect from this year and the other IIMs are expected to follow suit.

The IIM Calcutta fee hike, if it happens, will coincide with a 6 per cent increase in the institute’s number of seats, from the current 300 to 318. The B-school has decided to phase out the increase in seats — 27 per cent for other backward classes students and 27 per cent for the general category — in three years.

“The introduction of quota and the consequent need to augment infrastructure is one of the reasons behind the fee hike. For every MBA student, there is a certain amount of deficit that the institute incurs, and we are trying to reduce the deficit with the hike,” Sen said.

But authorities at IIM Calcutta believe the fee hike will not pinch the students as most of them take bank loans to finance their course.