IITs hike tuition fee by 80% for undergraduate courses

New Delhi: The IITs today approved a hike in tuition fee for undergraduate students from Rs 50,000 to Rs 90,000 per year with effect from this year. HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju said the the Group of Directors of IITs and Empowered Task Force had recommeded revision of fee and the revised rates will applicable to the new entrants to the undergraduate programmes. The fee may revised periodically, he said. After the 46th meeting of Council of IITs here, Raju said that at present, the undergraduate students pay an annual tuition fee of Rs 50,000. [caption id=“attachment_580149” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] 
The Council also decided to exempt students from central technical institutions like the IITs and National Institutes of Technology from appearing for the GATE Test.[/caption] The empowered task force had considered the details for implementation of the Kakodkar Committee which had recommended last year a steep hike of Rs 2-2.5 lakh per annum from the existing Rs 50,000. The Group of Directors of IITs and Empowered Task Force had revised the downwards the recommendations. The fee was last revised from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 per annum from the academic session 2008-09. “No tuition fee is charged from the students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. A number of other facilities like free mess, free hostel facility and free book bank facilities are available to SC and SC students,” the Minister told reporters here. Besides, 25 percent of total students, whose parental income is less than Rs 4.5 lakh per year, are given 100 percent scholarships, Raju said. Members of Council of IITs stressed that easy loan facility is available to students and no student, who has qualified JEE, is denied entry into IITs due to financial constraints. One of the key recommendations of the Kakodkar Committee was that IITs become financially independent of non-plan (operational) budgetary support to meet their operating expenditure, while the capital, students scholarships, support and infrastructure expenditure continue to be met fully under plan (capital budget support) by the government. PTI