New Delhi: The Centre has decided to put on hold IITs decision to increase the fee of M.Tech programme ten times at its council meeting in September.
The IIT council, the highest decision-making body of the premier technical institutes in the country, had announced at the meeting to raise the M.Tech course fee and bring it on par with B.Tech courses. The council is headed by Minister of Human Resource and Development (HRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
IITs had maintained that the hike would discourse non-serious students from applying for the M.Tech programme. IIT-Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao had said that the M.Tech programme had recorded a dropout rate of 50 per cent as the students treated it as a “stop-gap” arrangement till they landed with a job.
News reports on Wednesday, however, claimed the decision has been put on hold by the HRD Ministry. The council, at its next meeting, will consider the proposal afresh.
IIT aspirants across the country had protested the hike and had demanded rollback of the decision. The HRD Minister had to face students’ protests during his recent visit to BHU campus.
Some reports claimed that the strident protest by JNU students against fee hike could have prompted the HRD Ministry to put the decision on hold.