After IIMs, IITs plan to hike fees

After IIMs, IITs plan to hike fees

BS Reporter / New Delhi April 2, 2008



Around a decade after they last raised fees, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have approached the government for permission to double annual tuition fees from June this year, when a new batch of 4,100 students begin studying at the IITs.

Confirming the development, Surendra Prasad, director, IIT Delhi, said, "There has been a proposal to raise the fee for some time now."

Sources said the directors of all the seven IITs wrote to the prime minister a month ago requesting higher fees.

An IIT student pays an annual fees of Rs 25,000.

"Though we propose to double the fees, the fact is that we have not raised fees for a long time now, and the fee increase is not all that stiff when compared with private institutions," Prasad added.

On whether the fee increase will apply to students who are already enrolled at Kharagpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Guwahati, and Roorkee, Prasad said, "We will decide whether or not it will apply to existing students once the government allows us to raise fees."

The move comes just ahead of the Joint Entrance Examination scheduled for April 13. About 200,000 students will take the test

The move follows steep fee increases by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) from this academic year. Top-ranked IIM-Ahmedabad has increased the course fee from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 11.5 lakh and IIM Bangalore has raised it to Rs 8 lakh from Rs 5 lakh.

A professor of IIT Roorkee said the IITs have also asked for capacity expansions at existing IITs, enhanced scholarships for the M. Tech programme and more faculty recruitment.

"A major portion of our funding, around 70 per cent, comes from the human resource development ministry. Around 30 per cent of the resources are being generated from activities like research and collaboration. Although fees are not a big source of our income, increasing them would help us strengthen our resources," Prasad said.