IITs raise tuition fee to Rs 90K per annum, agree to be peer reviewed

The IIT Council on Monday approved an 80 per cent increase in tuition fee at the Indian Institutes of Technology for the 2013-14 session. The fee, which was doubled to Rs 50,000 per annum in 2008-09, will now be Rs 90,000 per annum.

SC/ST students, who do not pay the tuition fee, will not be affected, Human Resource Development Minister Pallam Raju announced.

The Anil Kakodkar Committee had made a strong case for increasing tuition fees in 2011, arguing that it cost Rs 2.5 lakh to educate an undergraduate student at IIT. In November 2012, the Standing Committee of the IIT Council agreed to increase the fee.

Raju said the larger aim of increasing fees is to enable the 16 IITs to work on a self-sustainable basis like the IIMs. Fees would be reviewed every year, the minister said, while assuring that no qualified student would have to leave an IIT for financial reasons.

The IIT Council pitched for greater accountability at the institutes, and endorsed the ministry's proposal for a peer review every five years. The review will assess the institute's position against its charter and projections, as well as its future plans. The institute will be reviewed on teaching quality, research, governance quality, range of degrees on offer, environment for research, contribution to research and bottlenecks in the way.

New IITs will be eligible for the review on completion of five years of operation. Central universities and IIMs too have agreed to being peer reviewed, Raju told reporters.

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