Student's corner

Dear Students,

LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think IITs should hike fees by 80 per cent or more than that?

BEST RESPONSE

Over five decades IITs are famous for the merit based admissions and very negligible tuition fees. Also most of the students belong to villages. Those students were passionately working hard to get to IITs as the fee burden on the family was less. Now the hiking of the fees may be marginal from institute’s point of view but this means a lot to those student. Loan requires heavy documentation and ultimately adds pressure to students. Instead IITs should look for options such as corporate sponsorship's, funds from government, and alumni, among others.

- Dani Sarang A, Vishwakarma Institute of Management, Pune.

OTHER RESPONSES:

There are two categories of brilliant students who get into IITs. They are the meritorious ones and the students belonging to SC/ST/OBC category. Currently, the engineering education over there are highly subsidized because the professors over there are paid their salaries by the government. Considering the fact that IITs are the top institutes in India, a fee hike from their side would deprive the students of their opportunities in perusing their professional carrier. This would result in the IITs becoming like the private institutions that are in need of money, thereby diluting their image in the market.

- Arun Sundar, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore.

Given the value of education imparted by IITs, a higher than 80 per cent fees hike too would have stood justified. The highly subsidized fees that prevailed were to facilitate the students to use their expertise for the development of the country. Given that most students who clear IIT Entrance are from affluent families, many of whom prefer to migrate to the west if given a chance; and the remuneration that an IIT degree gives you, the fees hike is requisite. However government should make sure to award scholarships to economically backward students so that they aren't adversely affected by the fees hike.

- Glorin Sebastian, Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship (XIME), Bangalore.

If one has to look at the quality of education that is imbibed in students at IIT, the proposed fee hike by 80% seems quite reasonable. Given the level of inflation in the country, it is but natural the same would also affect the teaching staff that has contributed to the growth of the IITs through their yeoman's service put in all these years. There is a chance that the same teaching staff may move over to private institutions that offer better pay packages thereby causing more damage to the IITs.

- Amol Mahale, The Institute of Cost Accountants of India.

I strongly disagree with the suggested hike in the fees of IITs. Firstly, there are some fields like healthcare, education, security, woman empowerment etc , which are the moral responsibility of government, so education (whether primary or higher or professional) must be within the reach of a common man. Secondly, if IIMs are charging high fees , their fees should be reduced instead of increasing the fees of IITs. Even today we can see many kids from underprivileged segment are not able to get the right opportunity even if they have the ability.

- Ramesh Singh, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad.

The suggested fee hike is right on the ground that the annual budget of the IITs consistently increasing, because of inflation, with no corresponding increase in their income. Increasing tuition fees is the only way for the IITs to make up for the huge deficit. If approved, the proposed increase in the fee will not influence students from the Schedule Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBC quota. It is only meant for the general category students. The proposed fee of Rs 90,000 per annum is still way less than the good private institutes.

- Kishore Iyengar, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad.

The fee hike at IIT’s would give way for the other private Institutions to hike their fees according to their own whims and fancies. As such the ratio of students aspiring to be engineers and the number of IIT’s across the country is so disproportionate that many need to be contended with pursuing their degree in private colleges only. The proposed fee hike would only be an additional financial burden to the parents of the students who aspire to be future engineers and nothing else.

- Bhuvana Bhimaiah, Alagappa University, Bangalore.

It is much needed for triumph educational institution like IIT to hike their fees as per current global standard. It will reduce burden on the government and will provide financial independence to the institute to invest more on technology and education. As far as the students from economically weaker section are taken into consideration, scholarship by the government should be provided to the needy.

- Akriti Rastogi, GLA Institute of Technology and Management, Mathura.

IITs should increase its fees to some extent and if possible it can go beyond the 80 per cent mark. If we compare IITs with other top engineering college in USA the fees of IITs is very negligible compared to them. Increasing fees will help IITs to maintain its budget so that it can retain quality faculties as well as can invest more on research. Although hiking fees may have some burden to the student of those lower income families but in order to protect the interest of IIT and maintain its quality IITs should increase its fees.

- Pritheejit Chatterjee, Indian Institute Of Social Welfare and Business Management, Kolkata.

If the fees of IIT colleges are hiked,then only rich students can afford to take admissions in IIT colleges. Students prefer IITs over other colleges because they provide quality education at nearly the same or lower fees than several private institutes. It would be difficult for meritorious students to get admission into IITs for the sake of higher fees. Instead of hiking the fees, authorities of IITs can ask students to pay after they get jobs for the development of the IITs.

- Rituparna Saha Ray, Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues Institute of Management Studies, Navi Mumbai.

IIT fees hike is totally reasonable. The average salary of an IITian is at least Rs. 7-8 lakh. So if the student has taken an education loan they would be able to repay the loan in a couple of years. The salaries of IIT faculty members and staff have gone up by nearly 70 per cent since sixth pay commission was introduce recently, so the institutes wants to balance every expenditures. I positively agree with the panel of IIT institute for hike up fees and optimistically parents is totally not oppose to an hike, because IIT gives worth it on that fees.

- Vivek Shah, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad.

IITs are making foray into diverse subjects and the 80 per cent fee increment will provide some relief to the cost incurred per IIT student. IITs are dependent on government grants and hence are controlled by the government. Moreover, students admitted to the premier institution can avail easy loans. Merit based scholarship is provided to one third of the students who can’t afford the fees. But raising more than 80 per cent will give the economically downtrodden a run for their money stressing the fact that IITs are ‘Institutes of National Importance’ representing the assiduous Indian youth irrespective of their socio-economic condition.

- Rishav Dugar, Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship, Bangalore.

Even a fourfold increase in the fees would not make IIT education beyond the realms of the common man because students whose parental income is less than Rs 4.5 lakh and those belonging to backward sections are given exemption even upto 100 per cent. When Rs 1-2 lakh is the average money spent on IIT-JEE coaching by aspirants, the new fee structure is not a botheration. Private colleges taking cue of this situation must be prevented. While financial independence for IITs is one thing, the government must increase the allocation of research grants to the premier institutes to become truly world class.

- Shilpa Subramanian, Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship (XIME), Bangalore.

The proposed increase in the fee will not affect students from the Reserved category. Secondly, it will give IITs more financial independence from the government. Since the average salary of IITians are roughly Rs eight lakhs they will be able to repay the loans in couple of years. We should also remember that fee include not only academic but also include hostel fee and multitude of other facility which student avail at IITs. Lastly IITs already offer highly subsidized education which is not linked to inflation and other extraneous factor at all.

- Nilaya Mitash Shanker, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.

There are two aspects to the increase in fee. Firstly hiking the fee is good as it will make the IITs financially a little better and less dependent on government funding. However the second aspect is that hike would burden students, as in recent period more students from lower classes are taking admission to IITs. But if fee hike is taken to cover the increase in operational cost of IITs, a special loan scheme should be worked out so that students have the option of paying back the extra burden after they finish their course and find employment.

- Arjun Malkar, Fr. C Rodrigues Institute Of Management Studies, Navi Mumbai.

IITs are the entry ticket to the arena of world-class facilities along with a lifelong tag of being a part of it. But with hike in fees this entry ticket would be expensive. But with ample fringe benefits, impressive average salary figures along with ease in availability of bank loans, this wouldn't be a big deal for those aspirants who spend plenty of money in coaching institutions for its preparation. It would also help IITs to achieve financial independence and cope up with price hike of facilities.

- Girish Changulani, Jhunjhunwala Business School, Faizabad.

Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Do you think introducing firm friendly measures would ensure better placement season for B-schools?