Government clears doubling of fees at IITs

The Narendra Modi government has decided to raise the annual fees for undergraduate courses at the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology from the existing Rs 90,000 to Rs 2 lakhs, an increase of 122 per cent, from the coming academic session.

The decision comes weeks after a panel headed by IIT Roorkee chairman Ashok Misra approved a proposal for a threefold increase in tuition fees from Rs 90,000 to Rs 3 lakhs a year from the next academic session. It is learnt the final decision on one of the biggest fee hikes at the IITs was taken by HRD minister Smriti Irani, who chairs the IIT Council, the highest decision-making body of all 16 IITs.

Sources said the move to implement the hike in fees was soon after the HRD ministry announced a total fee waiver for disabled students, those from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and those whose families have annual incomes of less than Rs 1 lakh.

It is understood that students from families with annual incomes of less than Rs 5 lakhs will also be entitled to a waiver of two-thirds of the fee. The other students, who don’t fall under any of these categories, will be facilitated interest-free loans, sources said. The official directive on the fee hike is likely to be issued soon.

Students who are already enrolled in IITs will continue to pay fees according to the old slabs, and the new structure will apply only to fresh enrollments, sources stated.

A proposal for a threefold increase in tuition fees was first made before the standing committee at its meeting in Mumbai in October, but it was then referred to an expert committee comprising IIT directors.

It is not the first time an expert panel has recommended a steep hike in IIT fees. Under the UPA-2 government, an expert committee headed by Anil Kakodkar recommended a five-fold hike in IIT fees, claiming it will give financial autonomy to the institutes. However, then HRD minister Kapil Sibal had rejected the proposal, saying that it would hurt the government’s inclusive education agenda.

The IITs are autonomous public institutes of higher education. The 23 IITs are located at Bhilai, Chennai, New Delhi, Dhanbad, Dharwad, Goa, Guwahati, Jammu, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Roorkee, Bhubaneswar, among others.