Director V Ramgopal Rao on Sunday did some plain-speaking on the choice to hike the fee cost of M.Tech programs, saying it was a “surgical strike” on “uninterested students”, even as an online petition was begun demanding rollback of the choice.
In a long Facebook post, Rao justified the decision, expressing that “the complimentary benefits” that the 23 institutes were doling out with the taxpayers’ money to students expected to stop “sooner or later”.
“Numerous students take admission in M.Tech and over half of them quit when they get a new line of work,” Rao expressed in the post. “Among the staying, many get ready for other competitive examinations and have no enthusiasm for what they are seeking after. Nation’s valuable resources—IIT seats and government funds—are squandered in such a situation with no benefit to anybody,” he said.
Rao, referring to the high dropout rate (over 50%), contended that students appreciate the jobs that they get subsequent to finishing B.Tech beyond what the vocation they can work with their M.Tech. “How might we spend taxpayers’ money to offer free education to them, when they themselves see no value in such an education,” he asked. The highest tuition fee for M.Tech programs, which varies starting with one IIT then onto the next, is at present fixed at about Rs 62,000 for each annum.
After revision of the tuition fee according to the council’s decision, the two-year M. Tech program at the IITs will cost Rs 2 lakh per annum to students, who are not qualified for any scholarship or fee waiver schemes.
“The IITs are now taking loans from HEFA (Higher Education Financing Agency) for their infrastructure. The IIT Delhi needs to repay something like Rs 580 crores to Canara Bank over the next 10 years. Same is the case with the IIT Bombay and others. There is a great need to increase our internal revenues,” Rao said.
“The decision for fee hike will be actualized in the IITs throughout the following three years, assuring that all scholarships and fee waivers will be stretched out to students”, he said.
He also said that M.Tech programs will be revised to align them with the market requirements.
He further added,
“Since the programmes will get aligned with market requirements, they will be guaranteed a job and (they) can repay loans. If students are willing to pay 20 lakhs for an MBA degree in an IIM, they can surely pay 4 lakhs for a masters degree in IITs”.
With clatter growing among the student community, Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry also stepped in. The ministry, in a statement, said the fee hike will “discourage non-serious students”.
In the meantime, an online petition at change.org demanding the rollback of the decision was picking up support, with more than 38,000 individuals signing it till Sunday evening.
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