Why IIT Delhi's Institute of Eminence tag will double Masters students' fees

Research scholars and postgraduate students at IIT Delhi will have to pay almost double of what they paid till last year — in the meanwhile the institute earned the tag of Institution of Eminence (IoE). The management said that the fee hike has been implemented for “internal revenue generation” for the sake of additional infrastructure.

According to a fee circular issued by the Institute on November 14, the fee for the full-time PhD students, enrolled in 2017 or before that, is Rs 10,000 for the January semester, it will now be Rs 19,650 for those who have enrolled for the course in 2018. Similarly, the fee for MTech and Masters of Science (research) (MSR) has been increased from Rs 27,100 to Rs 53,650 for students enrolled in 2018. Fees have not been raised for foreign students as of now, reported Hindustan Times.

V Ramgopal Rao, IIT-D director, also said that they plan to revise the fee for these courses every year. “IITs are completely dependent on grants from the government. We do not have autonomy to change the fee structure of BTech courses. But in masters and research courses, we have the authority to change some amount of fee. Now, after the IoE tag, we will need funds for infrastructure projects and maintenance. We will have to look for all the revenue generation models for the institution. So, there is a minimal revision in the fee structure,” he explained.

Even though the fees were doubled overnight the scholarships for the students remain the same. "If fees keep increasing at this rate higher education will become inaccessible to the majority of the population. What good is 'eminence' if we have to exclude the majority of the students?" asked Debottam Saha, a PhD scholar at IIT Delhi. Debottam said that they have not received an official notice yet. "Autonomy is a farce if the government absolves itself of any responsibilities towards the institute. What is the use of having a public sector in education if they can't provide education for all?"

Associate Dean, PG Research, Shantanu Roy said the fee revision for postgraduate and research courses was decided in the senate meeting earlier this year. “The proposal for the revision in fee structure was passed by the IIT-D senate much ahead of the Institution of Eminence tag. We had not made the corrections for very long time,” he said, adding that the revision in the fee structure of foreign students has not been approved as of now.