There is one news from the world of IITs.
One of the best engineering college in India, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has increased the tuition fees for its post-graduation programmes.
IIT Madras Raises Post-Graduation Tuition Fees
This new decision shall affect the newly admitted students in the MTech, MSc, and MA programmes.
The tuition fee has been revised as below:
| Course | Earlier | Now |
| MTech | Rs 5000 | Rs 25000 |
| MA | Rs 5000 | Rs 20000 |
| MSc | Rs 3000 | Rs 25000 |
Fee Hike Sparks Student Backlash and Concerns
However, the same did not go very well with the students and their community. In a recent social media post by Chintabar, which is an independent student community of the institute criticised this move. The post said that “This represents a 400% increase for MTech, 300% for MA, and 733% for MSc compared to the previous year”.
The total institute fee paid by an MTech student in the first semester at the time of joining, including the deposit and one-time fees, has increased from Rs 23,650 to Rs 61,500.
The community also highlighted the fact that the half-time teaching assistantship (HTTA) for MTech students remains unchanged at Rs 12,400 per month, despite the increase in tuition fees.
The post read that “From last year onwards, the institute has also been admitting students under the non-HTTA category, who would not be receiving any fellowship from the institute”.
A student said, under the condition of anonymity, that such a hike is not feasible for the students who come from the economically weaker sections.
On the same lines and echoing same sentiments, another student said that “We are not getting even one-fourth of it (the new fee) as our stipend. This is also the reason we are not able to get a better QS ranking and be able to compete with the universities abroad.”
The Free Press Journal reached out to IIT-M officials for their comments, but no response has been received until the publication of this article.
