Rs 10,000 to be an IIM-A alumnus

By Ruchi Shrimali

IIM Ahmedabad has come up with an innovative way to fight off its funding blues. Students who take up short-term and medium-term courses of three weeks or more, can get the alumni tag at an additional fee of Rs 10,000.

Last month, IIM-A had raised its fees by 7%. It is also planning to market its case studies to interested B-schools in India and abroad for additional funds and is trying to rope in alumni and corporate contributions. More about fundraising efforts of IIM-A

It has now revised its Alumni Status Policy to include programmes that are of three weeks or more, such as MDP and FDP, as well as short-duration courses for a cumulative duration of at least three weeks. It means that students who opt for courses shorter than three weeks can opt for another course until the cumulative duration of all the courses exceed three weeks and gain the tag. All the past, present, and future students of these programmes will have to pay a one-time alumni fee of Rs 10,000 to get the identity card of IIM Ahmedabad alumni. See details of the revised Alumni Status Policy

However, if students opt for customised MDPs, they will not be eligible for the alumni status.

MDP programmes at IIM Ahmedabad are quite popular and are believed to contribute 75% of total B-school's revenues. However, there are some regular students of the management institute, who feel that MDP students have a very short association with the institute and hence do not deserve the prestigious status. Read what full-time students think.

To resolve the matter, the new policy suggests that while full-time or regular students of IIM-A will just be referred to as IIM A alumni, students of short-term and medium-term courses could be called alumni with the name of the programme as the prefix, such as MDP alumni and FDP alumni. Know more

Do you think encashing on ‘IIM-A alumnus' tag will diminish its reputation in the market. Share your thoughts here.