Hike in IIT fee evokes mixed response

Hyderabad: The decision by the Central government to increase the fee for undergraduate courses in Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) has evoked mixed response from educationists, former IIT ians, parents and students. While some felt that the hike in fees would make it difficult for aspiring students to pursue the highly skilled technical education, others felt that it was a positive move towards making the prestigious institutions as self sufficient.

IIT alumni Prof Pratap Reddy said the hike would take the IIT out of bounds for the common man. He said though the government would give concessions and scholarships, the fee burden would be on 70 per cent of the students. However, P Suresh, ex- student of IIT-Roorkee felt that people were making issue out of a non-issue. He said the HRD Minister had taken a bold decision to hike the fee.

He further said while students and parents were paying lakhs of rupees to get into the private universities, why could they not afford the IITs. Renowned educationist and IIT guru Chukka Ramaiah felt that majority of students going for the IITs were from middle income group. The middle income group families have limited capacity to the pay the fee. Students would be forced to work after their academics so as to clear the loan burden on their education.

A parent, Ravinder Reddy, whose ward is studying in IIT, criticised the Central government for the hike. He said all the students studying in the IITs would not land in the plum jobs. “Only 2 to 3 per cent of students bag good offers and rest of the students get jobs with not so good packages. Going by the hike in the fee, students would be forced to work to clear their debts,” he said.

Hari Babu, an agriculturalist, whose son is studying in an IIT, said they could not afford the fee Rs 90,000. Now with the present hike, the IIT education had gone beyond the affordability of parents in rural areas.