Fund your own course

Updated on: Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Calcutta University (CU) student Aindrila Chakraborty knows that she will not be sitting in a plush office at the end of her MBA. In fact she does not intend to.

"I'm paying around Rs 1 lakh for my MBA. I feel that it is better than taking a loan to pay exorbitant fees for a less-reputed private institute which does not guarantee a job," she says.

"My starting salary may be lower but at least I do not have unrealistic expectations," she adds.

Aindrila has just completed her first year and supports CU's decision to start self-financing courses.

The latest such course at CU is a twoyear postgraduate full-time day programme in Human Resource Management for which admissions are on until February 26, 2010.

The course was developed after consulting Delhi University's faculty of management studies.There are 30 seats and admissions are through CAT and/or JEEMAT (WBUT), followed by GD and PI.

What is a self-financing course?

CU introduced self-financing courses because of a funds constraint. "The University Grants Commission directed us to launch new courses and get students to finance them," says Prof R Khasnabis, director, department of business management, Calcutta University.

"Fees for teachers will be borne by students," explains R Khasnabis. The university will provide the infrastructure such as classrooms and library resources. Students will finance placements. "A certain sum of the fees will go towards the monthly remuneration of a placement officer," says Khasnabis. The director makes it clear that there will be no compromise on faculty, infrastructure and quality of the course.

Soumyajit Sinha, who is studying for his self-financed masters of HR and organisational behaviour, agrees. "Everything is provided. The staff is experienced. The focus is on education although our seniors tell us that placements are good provided that you do well."

Social responsibility

The move to start self-financed courses, according to Khasnabis, was to curb the proliferation of various private institutes that were charging exorbitant fees for similar courses.

UGC has directed universities such as Delhi University to set up similar courses so that the acts of private institutes would come under check.

"It is our social responsibility to keep our course fees to a minimum and not an amount like Rs 3 lakh a year," reveals the director.

The two-year postgraduate programme in HRM costs Rs 4000 a month. "Programmes like this are much more affordable for students who cannot afford to pay exorbitant fees," signs off Soumyajit, who is happy with his course.

Fund your own course

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