IIT MTech students will soon have to pay more fees

Students may now have to pay a much higher tuition fee to pursue MTech in the IITs with the council of 23 premier technical institutes setting the stage for a steep hike in existing fee of the programme giving an “in principle” approval to a proposal on Friday.

The IIT council at its meeting, chaired by Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, approved “in principle” a proposal to bring the fee structure of the MTech programmes on par with that of the BTech.

It also gave approval to a proposal to introduce a uniform fee structure for the MTech programmes in all the IITs.

The highest tuition fee for MTech, which varies from one IIT to another, is currently fixed at about Rs 62,000 per semester. The current tuition fee for the BTech programmes in IITs is fixed at about Rs 2 lakh per annum.

“The council approved in principle recommendation of a three-member committee for charging the same fee for MTech as in BTech programmes. The council also approved the committee recommendation for a uniform fee structure for MTech programme in all IITs,” a ministry official said.

The council has approved proposal to make MTech tuition fee on par with that of the BTech as a substantial number of students drop out of the programme a year after taking admission mainly on getting a job offer.

The monthly stipend of Rs. 12,400 that were given to M.tech scholars who joined the system onthe basis of GATE scores will also be stopped.