NEW DELHI: The intense protests over the hostel fee hike in JNU has forced the HRD Ministry to rethink a decision on the M. Tech. fee hike in the IITs.
IIT Council, the top decision-making body of the IITs chaired by the HRD minister, had cleared a proposal for ten-fold hike in the Master’s programme on September 27.
This newspaper has learnt that two of the most important decisions taken in the IIT Council — to hike M Tech fee and appoint entry-level professors on five-and-a-half-year contract before their recruitment are confirmed — could now be reversed in probably first such departure from the tradition.
The minutes of the meeting are yet to be approved by HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, nearly two months later.
“That’s because we are stuck on the two key outcomes from the meeting. Now it seems both will have to be reversed,” a ministry official said.
IITs at present charge Rs 30,000-50,000 per annum for M.Tech and also give a stipend of Rs 12,400 to students.
According to the IIT council, this fee was to be raised to Rs 2 lakh-3 lakh per annum and the stipend was also to be stopped.
An IIT director said he was puzzled about the change in stand on M.Tech fee because that had come after a detailed deliberation and had been recommended by a joint IIT committee.
Interestingly, in reply to a question in Parliament on Thursday, the ministry said a “final decision on tenure track system for faculty appointment was yet to be taken.”
In the IIT Council, a proposal by the ministry — that said work of every assistant professor who will be only on contract till first five-and-half-years be assessed thoroughly before the confirmation of the appointment —was approved without any discussion, two directors quoted above said.