The Anil Kakodkar committee, set up by the government to study the roadmap for the autonomy and future of the IITs, had recommended that the fee be raised from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 to Rs 2.5 lakh per annum.
As the committee report came for discussion at the 42nd meeting of the IIT Council here on Friday, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal rejected the fee increase proposal, noting that it will be a “deterrent” for aspiring students, ministry sources said.
The council asked the committee to rework the fee structure taking into account the aspirations of all sections. During the meeting, Sibal announced setting up 50 research parks at a cost of Rs 200 crore during the 12th Five Year Plan period.
Under the programme, industry will undertake research on various subjects with the support of experts from the IITs.
The research parks have been proposed to be set up on public-private-partnership (PPP) model. One such research park has already come up in Chennai.
The meeting took note of the fact that credit-based practices were being followed by different IITs for promoting students from one semester to the next, and agreed that academic bodies of the IITs should consider acquisition of credits as a criteria for students and granting of degrees to bring uniformity.
This came after the report of the S G Dhande committee on uniform and homogeneous criteria for promoting students in the IITs was placed before the council for discussion.
The council decided that a panel for visitor’s nominee for a particular department would be created which all IITs could use for faculty selection. “This will ensure timely selection of professors,” the council noted.
It also decided that the appointment of directors should be through advertisements so that a wider base was created. “It was decided that in principle approval may be granted for setting up an institute in Mauritius with the help of the IITs,” an official said.
At the meeting, a presentation was made on adopting cyber security as part of the curriculum for the IITs. So it was decided that a committee be set up to develop a roadmap for the future and give a report in next three months.
“The committee would involve all educational institutions as well as government departments,” the HRD Ministry official said.