IITs get approval for a steep hike in MTech tuition fee

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.

“This causes a huge loss to the IITs every year. Increase in the fee structure is expected to ensure that only serious students will enrol for the MTech programme,” an IIT faculty member said.

The council also decided to review the current course structure of the MTech programme and bring suitable changes in them to meet the requirement of the Industry.

At the meeting, the council also decided that IITs will review the merit-cum-means scholarship scheme being implemented at the institutions.

“The decision was taken as there has been cases of duplication. A student availing benefit of one scheme should not get benefit of the other at the same time. Several schemes are being implemented by the IITs to provide financial support to students coming from socially and economically backward sections,“ official sources in the ministry said.

The merit-cum-means scholarship scheme will be reviewed “in the interest of the students,” the official added.

A decision was taken to launch a major drive for improving the hostel facilities and rebuilding the dilapidated hostels at the IITs.

“Separate funding for this would be earmarked under Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA). Further, where possible, a PPP model would be implemented which would be started by IIT Delhi,” the ministry said in a statement after the meeting.