IIT Delhi announces reduction in fee charges after students protest

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The Institute of Information and Technology (IIT) Delhi on Friday announced fee reduction for fresh postgraduate students joining the second semester in 2021-22 or later.

IIT Delhi reached this decision on the recommendation of a committee constituted by the director to look into the representation made by a set of MTech students.

“As a result of the protests at IIT Delhi, tuition and other charges have been significantly reduced on the recommendation of the committee appointed to monitor the issue. ₹25,000 to per semester ₹17,500 per semester,” IIT Delhi said.

“Similarly, the tuition fee of other PG programs has been reduced. Apart from the tuition fee, other components of the fees have also been reduced,” it added.

Earlier, IIT-Delhi students had protested against the hike in fees for M.Tech programmes, which they claimed had doubled this academic year.

The increased fee structure was implemented in January 2022 and was decided by the board of the institute. Earlier M.Tech program had educational cost ₹10,000 per semester. Under the new charge structure, applicable to students admitted in 2022-2023, it was increased ₹25,000 per semester.

Students staged a “silent protest” on campus demanding a review of the fee hike.

Also, the hostel fee was increased from the same ₹10,500 per semester ₹13,250 per semester. Also, the monthly stipend that students get for teaching assistant duties and lab work remains the same ₹12,400 per month. The 150% hike in tuition fees made students anxious which led to protests.

Recently, a similar situation was witnessed at IIT Bombay where students went on hunger strike against hike in fee structure. On August 7, the IIT-Bombay administration said that the charges had to be increased “to survive and grow”. “Increase in hostel fees is essential to cover actual expenses while allowing us to utilize other sources of income to provide better academic facilities,” a statement from the institute said. The statement further said that the government could not continue the subsidy facility beyond one point. However, later the fee was reduced.

with input from organizations.

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