IIM Ahmedabad Increases PGPX Seats to 120

The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) has increased the number of seats for its 1-year Post Graduate Program for Executives (PGPX) to 120 from the earlier 85 along with increasing the fees for its 2-year Post Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management and PGP Food & Agribusiness Management (PGP-FABM).

While the fee for the PGP has gone up by 7.7% and PGP-FABM from Rs. 19.5 lakh to Rs. 21 lakh, IIMA does not propose to increase the number of seats for these 2-year programs, IIMA Director Ashish Nanda said.

This is the second consecutive year the IIM went in for a fee hike for the PGP program. In 2016, it had increased the fees from Rs 18.5 lakh to Rs 19.5 lakh.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the 52^nd Annual Convocation of the Institute on March 24, Prof. Nanda said, “We have gone for two sections for our PGPX program.”

You are stepping into a world where change is more ferocious than it has ever been. And so, let me not sugar-coat things for you. The real world is a tough place where, often times, the light at the end of the tunnel is turned off due to budget cuts. There is intense competition out there. There is failure out there and you will encounter challenges and hurdles that you never even imagined in your wildest dreams.”

“The fee for the two-year programme will now be Rs 21 lakh. We have also increased the seat for post graduate executive management programme from 85 to 120. IIM Ahmedabad would continue to provide financial aid to the deserving students who form about one third of the class,” he added.

The PGPX, launched in 2006, is aimed at experienced professionals to accelerate their career path and assume leadership roles. The Program Fee for PGPX 2017-18 is pegged at Rs. 24.50 Lakh plus applicable taxes and cost of International Immersion Programme (IIP). The fee was last raised in 2015 from Rs. 21.5 lakh in the previous year. 

PGPX fee is usually a packaged/bundled fee which includes, for every student—tuition fees, books and course materials, accommodation, food charges (for those who are staying in SSH) and other service facilities such as library, computing, network changes etc. However this does not include the cost of International Immersion Programme (IIP). Utilities such as electricity, telephone, laundry, sports/gym subscription are additional and to be paid as per usage charges.

PGPX students can now apply for scholarships. The program has instituted 5 scholarships on merit basis which will work as interest waiver on bank loan taken by students (for the program fee) for an year. Maximum amount for the scholarship can go up to Rs 3 Lakh.

Meanwhile, 554 students were conferred diplomas at the Convocation. They included 401 students from Post Graduate Diploma (2015-17 batch), 45 from PGP Food and Agribusiness Management Programme (PGP-FABM), 90 from one-year PGPX (batch 2016-17) and 18 students from Fellow Programme in Management (FPM). Three students from the 2015-17 batch of PGP were awarded Gold medals.

Shikha Sharma, CEO and MD of Axis Bank Ltd., who was the Chief Guest at the convocation, in her address, said it was an opportune moment for India to regain its fair share of global economic production.

“This is India’s time in the sun. It is our time as a nation to regain our fair share of global economic production, of trade, or arts, culture, innovation,” she said.

Sharma, an alum of IIMA, said she was visiting the institute after a gap of 37 years. “We live in a world where the rate of change is constantly increasing, the effectiveness of our response strategies is increasingly uncertain and the number of variables at play are every higher. There are few situations where there is a clear right answer.”

She also said the graduates should remember that everything they do today, would be, for better or for worse, in the public gaze. And the public’s interpretation of it, their retelling of it, even their memory of it, is very likely to be imperfect, even unfair.”

Kumar Mangalam Birla, the chairman of Board of Governors at IIMA, said, “You are stepping into a world where change is more ferocious than it has ever been. And so, let me not sugar-coat things for you. The real world is a tough place where, often times, the light at the end of the tunnel is turned off due to budget cuts. There is intense competition out there. There is failure out there and you will encounter challenges and hurdles that you never even imagined in your wildest dreams.”