Govt reluctant to hike IIT fees
The government doesn’t seem inclined to hike the fee for undergraduate studies in the IITs as suggested by an expert committee. Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal is reported to have rejected the suggestion on raising fee made by it during a meeting of the IIT Council in the capital on Friday saying that this would act as a “deterrent”.
The Anil Kakodkar Committee has suggested a four to five-fold increase in fee for students undertaking undergraduate studies in the prestigious IITs saying that it be increased from `50,000 annually to `2 lakhs to `2.5 lakhs per annum.
Its report was presented during the council meeting on Friday. It was, however, reportedly asked to rework the fee structure. Apart from looking at the fee structure, the expert committee has also suggested a roadmap for the IITs. These suggestions were discussed at length at today’s meeting and will be taken into account when the report is finalised.
During the meeting, Mr Sibal also announced the setting up of 50 research parks at a cost of `200 crores during the 12th Plan period.
A decision to appoint IIT directors — the heads of the institutes — would be through a process of open advertisement so that there is a wider choice of candidates available. The council decided that a panel for visitor’s nominee for a particular department would be created, which all the IITs could use for the selection of faculty. This will ensure that timely selection of professors are made.
The meeting also discussed two other reports, both presented by Prof. Sanjay Dhande, who is the director of IIT, Kanpur. While one was on “a uniform criteria for promoting students from one semester to the next in the IITS”, the other is on “requirement of Infrastructure for Research”.
With regard to the uniform criteria for promotion, the council agreed that the academic bodies of the various IITs should consider acquisition of credits as a criteria for movement of students and grant of degrees. As for the other Dhande panel report, the council welcomed the its suggestions and agreed to implement them over time.
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