IIM Fees vs Placements: Soaring cost, stagnant salaries, students in debt

Every year, thousands of MBA aspirants across India dream of cracking the Common Admission Test (CAT exam) and securing a seat in the hallowed Indian Institutes of Management (IIM). The promise is simple: pay the price, earn the degree, reclaim it all and more in your first job. But data submitted to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) undermines that promise.

An analysis of official data on IIM placements from 17 of the premier business schools reveals a disturbing trend. A comparison of data from the 2024-25 ranking cycle with that of 2022-23 show that while the cost of MBA from IIM has risen sharply, real incomes have shrunk.

Now, graduates of some IIMs can take over a decade to repay their education loans. Here's what the data submitted for the NIRF rankings for MBA shows.

IIM MBA fees rise 12%

Across 17 IIMs, the scale of operations has grown, with intake, admissions and graduate counts rising by around 14%. Alongside, fees have gone up. The average IIM MBA fees has risen by over Rs 2 lakh in two years. And over the same period, the median IIM salary has fallen by Rs 6,827.

The average median salary across 17 IIMs has fallen by 0.32% over the two-year period, even as the average tuition fee has surged by nearly 12%. Add the inflation of 9% over the two years, the total cost burden on students has effectively increased by around 22%.

The real purchasing power of an IIM graduate's starting salary has deteriorated substantially, even as the cost of acquiring that degree has gone up.

Median Salary Drops: Which IIMs hit hardest?

The data shows massive drops in median salaries, coupled with aggressive fee hikes in several new-generation IIMs but most notably at IIM Sambhalpur and IIM Amritsar.

An IIM Amritsar student today pays nearly 19% more in fees than two years ago, only to land a job paying 23% less. The gap is even wider in the case of IIM Sambalpur where the MBA fees have exploded by over 60% but salaries have fallen.

Top IIMs: Even the best can't beat inflation

Even the most established IIMs – IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta – and second generation ones, such as IIM Indore, are not immune to this trend. While their median salaries are still growing in nominal terms, the growth is so slim that it fails to outpace fee hikes and inflation.

The most alarming case is IIM Mumbai, formerly NITIE. While the median salary grew by a modest 6.25% (from Rs 32 lakh per annum to Rs 34 lpa), the fee structure was overhauled. From a reasonable Rs 7.63 lakh, the IIM Mumbai fees has skyrocketed by 168.68% to over Rs 20.5 lakh.

Even at the best institutes, the "real income" of a graduate, adjusted for inflation, has fallen. The fee grows, inflation eats away the rest, and the student is left with less.

Education Loan: 15-year payback

With total fees now touching Rs 25–30 lakh at many IIMs, especially the so‑called ‘Baby IIMs’, students take on massive education loans. The table below shows what a fresh graduate’s financial situation might look like.

At an interest rate of 9–10%, repaying a Rs 30 lakh loan with a monthly EMI of 25,000–30,000 can take between 12 and 15 years.

This implies that a graduate will spend their late 20s and most of their 30s, not investing but simply paying off the student loan taken for the very degree that was supposed to fast‑track financial freedom.

Of course, this calculation assumes the graduate secures a job immediately after graduation, never faces a salary cut, and never has an emergency. This calculation is also based on medians and averages. Hundreds of graduates fall below those values every year but pay the same fees and are burdened by the same debt as their peers.

IIM brand and the fine print

Before signing an admission letter, students must do the following:

• Ask for the median salary, not the average
• Demand the bottom quartile placement number
• Calculate your EMI before you calculate your package

Don’t compare fee increase with salary growth for the top 10%, but for the median student.

The IIMs were conceived to create nation‑builders, not debt‑ridden graduates. Today, the data shows they are moving in the opposite direction. If nobody questions this, the next five years will see fees rise to Rs 40 lakh and salaries drop to Rs 12 lakh.

The data is clear. Fees are climbing, salaries are shrinking in real terms, and a generation of India’s brightest young minds is being saddled with debt that will follow them into their 40s.

And that raises one uncomfortable, unavoidable question – a question that every student, every parent, and every IIM board member must answer.

If the median salary at IIM Amritsar has dropped 23% in two years while fees rose 19%, and inflation ate another 9%, then what exactly are you paying for – an education, or a brand name that no longer delivers? If the average of 17 IIMs presents a picture where fees rose 12%, inflation accounted for 9% while median salary dropped by 0.32%, should the fees increase go unchecked?