Engineering education in the country, particularly in its premier institutes, has just got costlier. This is a welcome development and is in tune with the recommendations of several committees which wanted to reduce the institutes' dependence on the government to meet recurring costs. Care has also been taken to ensure that the fee hike does not impact students from underprivileged backgrounds - while increasing the annual fees of the undergraduate programme at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), the IIT Council has waived tuition fees for scheduled castes and tribes and those with annual family income of up to Rs 1 lakh. For those with family incomes below Rs 5 lakh, two-thirds of annual tuition fees will be waived. The fee hike also became inevitable after Budget 2016 proposed a new funding pattern for publicly funded institutes. The Budget proposed setting up a Higher Education Financing Agency, a quasi-sovereign body which will tap bond markets and then lend the proceeds to educational institutions. The plan was that while the operational expenditure of these educational institutions would be met with the help of their internal resources, their capital expenditure would be met through borrowings to be made by the proposed agency.
In a parallel, though unrelated move, some of the country's top management institutes have also effected a steep seven to 30 per cent increase in the fees of their flagship postgraduate programmes. This was inevitable for keeping pace with inflation. In many cases, the latest round of fee hikes has narrowed the gap between the older IIMs and the newer ones. This again is a desirable step as large subsidisation of students who pass out from these top institutes isn't required -- and, in any case, there are adequate fee waivers for students with economically challenged backgrounds. The human resources development ministry of course had little role to play in this as the draft IIM Bill, which would have given it a say on every important matter including fee hikes, is, thankfully, in cold storage.
While fee hikes are welcome, the IITs and the IIMs should focus more on how to improve the quality of their institutes as centres of excellence. Their performance in the areas of consultancy and patents have been inadequate and they would do well to focus on this if they are serious about increasing their financial autonomy. More importantly, the quantity and quality of research output and generation of indigenous teaching material and books from these institutes in comparison with the better schools globally have not been up to the mark. Most IIMs, for example, still use foreign material for teaching as there hasn't been enough emphasis on research. These institutes also need to change their business model as the current method, in which the institute funds its operations by cranking out multifarious programmes, is reaching its natural limit given the constraints on faculty.
On its part, the government would do well to curb its constant urge to micro-manage them as was evident in the draft IIM Bill. Instead, the ministry should focus on how to create an enabling environment for them. One obvious area would be to allow market-linked salaries to their directors and senior professors so that patriotism alone is not the main motivator for people taking up these jobs.
