Fee hike, peer review on IIT Council’s table today

When the IIT Council meets on Monday, it will take a call on a slew of significant proposals, including those for a fee hike, external peer review of IITs and a drive to adopt, teach and espouse 'green technology'.

In a far-reaching move towards bringing in accountability in IITs, it is proposed that every IIT be peer-reviewed every five years by eminent persons from the industry and academia. The new IITs — once they have operated for five years — will also be subject to this peer-review, according to the proposal on the agenda of the IIT Council.

Before the review exercise begins, each IIT will also be required to undertake in-house department wise review. As per the tentative time line arrived at, while the review committee is to be notified by April, the reports of these committees will be submitted by October.

The review will address aspects like where the institute has reached in relation to its charters and the projections. That apart, the institute's future plans and metrics that it adopts in assessing itself will also be observed. The institute will be reviewed on factors such as teaching quality, research, governance quality, range of degrees on offer, environment for research, contribution to research and the bottlenecks in the way.

The IIT Standing Council had met in November to approve an 80 per cent hike in the annual tuition fee at IITs — from Rs 50,000 to Rs 90,000 per annum — with exemption for SC/ST category students. The proposal is now expected to get the final nod from the IIT Council, which has on board IIT Directors, Chairpersons of Board of Governors of IITs besides eminent persons and is presided over by the HRD Minister.

The fee hike apart, the IIT Council will also mull over a National IIT Scholarship programme that will take care of up to 100 per cent tuition fee for reserved category students.

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