On December 12th, a meeting of all IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) directors was held in Kanpur. Directors from 15 IITs took part in it. IITs, the country’s premier technology institutes have requested the Indian government to reimburse the fees waivered to the special category of students and also recommended to replace fee waiver with interest free loans to benefit economically weaker students. It also said that the cost incurred for these students is adversely affecting the institution and eroding its corpus funds and that while it supports the policy and the social welfare decision on fee waiver, it requests the government to reimburse the same.
The directors recommended to the HRD ministry that whatever concession or free education is given to such students should be reimbursed to IITs as early as possible through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). Nearly 50% students studying in UG courses do not pay fees and also receive merit scholarship from IITs. The board wants the government and the relevant departments to bear the cost and in case any issue arises, it should be dealt directly between the student and the bank. The HRD ministry has announced a fee hike from this academic year from Rs.90000 to Rs.2 lakh annually. Presently, SC/ST and physically disabled students have a complete exemption from tuition fees, and all the students whose family income is less than Rs.9 lakh for five years, are exempted from interest on their educational loans. All this cost is borne by the IITs through their internal accruals.
For economically backward students, who were getting 5 years interest free loans, will now going forward get only 4 years exemption from interest, to coincide with their completion of the UG course at IITs. The merit cum scholarship scheme should be extended to all eligible students from economically weaker sections. All the above mentioned proposals were sent to the IIT Council, chaired by the union HRD minister.