ON FEE STRUCTURE OF IIT’S –

What has HRD ministry done?
The Human Resource Development Ministry has decided to raise the annual undergraduate student fees at the Indian Institutes of Technology to Rs. 2 lakh.

Q A
What has HRD ministry done?
  • The Human Resource Development Ministry has decided to raise the annual undergraduate student fees at the Indian Institutes of Technology to Rs. 2 lakh.
  • Continuing with the policy of affirmative action, students from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, candidates with disability and those from families with a defined low income will get fee exemption.
Why is the step so significant?
  • This decision marks another major initiative by these leading education institutions to realise their real costs.
  • It is important that fees for higher education are structured in such a way that the opportunity for the brightest students to enrol in the best institutions is not linked to their socio-economic backgrounds.
  • There is also merit in the argument that education is a basic right that access to this must be widened by every possible means; enlightened policy pursues this ideal in a variety of ways.
  • The fee revision scheme to be introduced broadly meets these criteria, and is consistent with the social deprivations that SC and ST students have faced, although the deficit they suffer due to a neglected school system remains unaddressed by overall education policy.
  • It is also important to ensure that the liberal education loan linkage for IIT students that the Devang Khakhar committee recommended, with no collateral requirements, is in place.
What should be further done?
  • In the last couple of decades, droves of IIT graduates have left for good research and employment prospects abroad, raising the question whether India derived adequate social returns for the beneficial and relatively low-cost education that these institutions offered them.
  • The imperative should therefore be to attract and retain talent, while protecting academic freedom and the principle of equity. This can be done through a funding system that does not close the door on a meritorious student who finds the fees unaffordable.
  • An income-linked loan scheme open to everyone, tied to the ability of the graduate to repay (rather than the status of a student’s parents) would be an equitable option.
  • The IITs should still offer generous assistantships flowing from social and charitable endowments. That would serve as a model for technical education and research.

WORD FROM TEAM GS-SCORE –

Relevant for

Education of GS:2
For further detail Refer article titled “Promoting equity with variable fees” from TheHindu dated April 8, 2016

 

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