IIT fee doubled; waiver for SC/ST, poor

The annual admission fee at the Indian Institutes of Technology has been hiked from Rs 90,000 to Rs two lakhs. Read on for details.

Studying at prestigious IITs will now be costlier with the government deciding to increase the annual fees for undergraduate courses from existing Rs 90,000

to Rs 2 lakh, a rise of 122 per cent, for new enrollments from the upcoming academic session. 

The HRD Ministry has also decided to give a total fee waiver for the differently-abled, students from SC and ST community and those belonging to families with annual income less than Rs 1 lakh, officials in the Ministry said.

Students from families with annual income of less than Rs 5 lakh will also be entitled to a waiver of two-third amount.

Rest of the students who do not fall under any category will be facilitated interest-free loans, the officials said.

The decision to hike the fee has been taken by the HRD Ministry following a proposal by a high-level IIT panel.

The Ministry has decided to hike the fees for undergraduate courses in IITs from existing Rs 90,000 to Rs two lakh, the officials said, adding an order in this regard will be issued soon.

Students who are already enrolled in various IITs will continue to pay their fee according to the old slabs and the new structure will be applicable only for fresh enrollments, they added.

The panel, headed by IIT Roorkee Chairman Ashok Misra, met last month and approved a proposal for a three-fold increase in tuition fee from the present Rs 90,000 to Rs 3 lakh per annum from the next academic session.

However, the final decision was taken by Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, who chairs the IIT Council, the highest decision-making body of all the 16 IITs.

A proposal for three-fold increase in tuition fee was first introduced before the Standing Committee at its meeting in Mumbai in October last, but it was referred to an expert committee comprising IIT directors.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are autonomous public institutes of higher education.

The 23 IITs are located in following cities: Bhilai, Chennai, Delhi, Dhanbad, Dharwad, Goa, Guwahati, Jammu, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Roorkee, Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Indore, Jodhpur, Mandi, Palakkad, Patna, Ropar, Tirupati and Varanasi.

Meanwhile Super 30 founder and mathematician Anand Kumar welcomed the central government decision to waive fee for SC/ST, physically challenged students and those from the below poverty line (BPL) families for undergraduate courses in IITs.

"It is a welcome step for thousands of students from underprivileged sections of the society carrying dreams of making it to India's premier IITs. The government has felt for them and waived fee, which will only contribute to nation's progress," Kumar said in a statement here.

"The poor invariably struggle even to reach the IIT stage and if money comes in the way after reaching there, it could be heartbreaking. Now the government has made deserving students from poor families carefree," he added.

Lead image used for representational purposes only. Image: Kind courtesy IIT-Bombay

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