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After 2 years, IIT-Bombay hikes fees by 35% for M Tech, PhD – Times of India

The fee hike by IIT-B has not gone down well with students

MUMBAI: After deferring it for two years on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, IIT-Bombay has finally increased the fees for M Tech and PhD students by around 35%. The institute has been contemplating a hike in postgraduate fees for some time and it was approved by the board of governors around three years ago.
The hike, however, has not gone down well with many students, who claim that they are already dealing with the impact of the pandemic and inflation. The brochure for M Tech programmes quoted the per semester academic fees for students seeking admissions this year as Rs 55,400, which was around Rs 40,250 in 2019-20 (some of the components were waived off or were slashed during the pandemic). This, however, is the non-concessional fee structure. The fees this year for the concessional group, which includes almost all M Tech students who get stipends from the institute, is Rs 35,400. In 2019-20, the concessional fee structure was at Rs 20,250.
Most students fall in the concessional group and were paying only a sum of Rs 20,250 per semester, said a professor. Additionally, these students get around Rs 12,000 per month as stipends for teaching and research assistantship, he added. Fees at most older IITs are likely to see an increase this year. The information brochure for IIT-Delhi quotes the M Tech fees for entry level students (receiving project and teaching assistantship) as Rs 69,100 this year.
Director of the institute, Subhasis Chaudhuri, said that the fee hike for PG courses was long overdue. “The infrastructural development cost is coming from borrowed money – the loan that the institute is taking from the Higher Education Funding Agency. The repayment can be done only through the revenue generated from tuition fees. Our fees are very low even after the hikes. These students also get monthly stipends. Internationally, the cost of masters’ programmes in engineering runs in thousands of dollars,” said Chaudhuri, adding that the institute had deferred the hike for two years.
A student, however, said that the hikes seem arbitrary and students were not consulted. A social media post by a students’ group stated that the students are already struggling with the pandemic and inflation, without having a hike in fellowship for three years. A section of students is planning to meet the institute authorities.

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Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/after-2-years-iit-bombay-hikes-fees-by-35-for-m-tech-phd/articleshow/92776473.cms