NEW DELHI: The council of IITs on Friday decided to hike the fees of

MTech

programmes by nearly 900% and bring it to the level of its BTech courses, which cost about Rs 2 lakh annually. As of now, admission and tuition fees for an MTech course at IITs range between Rs 5,000 to over Rs 10,000 per semester.

The IITs will also stop the monthly stipend of Rs 12,400 given to MTech scholars who join the system on the basis of their graduate aptitude test in engineering (GATE) score. The council meeting, chaired by HRD minister

Ramesh Pokhriyal

, also approved the “tenure track pathway” to decide whether a new faculty member is going “up” or “out” after a fifth-year review of his/her performance.

A ten-fold increase in tuition fees is not something to be done without carefully working out all the consequences. To be fair, the proposal also calls for ensuring transfer of funds to needy students and for the government to arrange educational loans. In principle, this may seem like enough to take care of the shock of the sudden and steep rise in fees. But we would urge the government to ensure the sequence is right— first put a robust system in place that ensures no needy and meritorious student has to drop out because he or she can’t afford it and then hike the fees. Else, we could end up in a situation where the hikes are implemented but the needy are left in the lurch. Times View

MTech tuition fees for IIT-Mumbai is Rs 5,000, while for IITDelhi it is Rs 10,000 for a semester. At IIT-Madras, the tuition fee is Rs 5,000 with a onetime payment of Rs 3,750. IITKharagpur’s first semester fee is Rs 25,950 with a Rs 6,000 refundable fee and Rs 10,550 for subsequent semesters. Of the 23 IITs, the seven older ones have around 14,000 MTech students.

While hiking the fees, it was suggested that needy students should be supported through

direct benefit transfer

or educational loans. Stopping the stipend (Rs 12,400) for half-time teaching assistantship, the council suggested that a good portion of the fees should be used for offering teaching assistantships (for UG labs and courses).

“These funds can also be used for other professional activities,” it said. The proposals are based on the recommendations of a three-member committee on reforms in MTech programmes in IITs. It was felt that a hike in fee and stoppage of stipend would reduce dropouts. Programmes with high fees like MBA, even in the

IIT

system, hardly see any dropouts.

With the approval of the “tenure track system”, the sword of performance will continue to hang over the heads of the new faculty members for five years. As per the decision, “the tenure of the faculty can be reviewed after 5.5 years from the date of joining by an external committee. Depending on the evaluation on research and service to the institute, s/he can be taken up to the higher level (associate professor) or asked to leave.”