Hundreds protest against M.tech fee hike at IITs

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 4: Hundreds gathered at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, on Friday morning to demand a roll-back of the 900% fee hike in the Indian Institutes of Technology’s M.Tech programme.

The protesters, who came together under the banner of All India Engineering Student Council, accused the IITs of being detached from the plight of middle-class students who will not be able to afford the increased fees.
“This decision is a blow to poor students. Prior to the hike, the students did not need to depend on their parents as the fees were nominal. But I don’t know how we will be able to manage now,” said Parvez Rafat, a 23-year-old IIT aspirant from Uttar Pradesh.

Parvez Rafat at the protest

‘Non-serious students’

At a meeting last month, the IIT Council which governs the IITs and includes the Union HRD minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, decided to increase the fee for the M.Tech programme from around Rs 10,000-Rs 20,000 to close to Rs 2 lakhs per year over three years.

The council also decided that all M.Tech students will no longer be eligible for stipends they were before.

The council had clarified in a statement that the hike will be introduced gradually and will not affect the batch currently enrolled. The IITs have defended the decision arguing it as a step towards filtering uninterested students out of the system.
“The fee hike will discourage non-serious students, who after a few months of stay in IITs, leave the programme midway to take up employment or to prepare for competitive exams,” the HRD ministry’s statement said.

The director of IIT Delhi, V Ramgopal Rao had argued in a social media post that M.Tech students are not necessarily interested in academics. “Those who wish to become one can directly register for PhD. All IITs allow a direct admission into PhD…without M.Tech as a requirement….Students who join the M.Tech programmes in IITs are joining these programmes to find a job, which is fine. [The] IITs there need to align their M.Tech programmes to the market requirements.”

However, Rafat said he wanted to join an M.Tech programme because he was interested in research.

‘Can’t depend on parents’

Although a large number of protesters appeared to be associated with a coaching institute that prepares examinees for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) there were also many others who were disappointed with the IIT Council’s decision. The GATE regulates admission into the MTech programme of the IITs.

“I depended on my parents to finish B.Tech but I can’t do the same for M.Tech,” said Divya Malakar, a protester. “I can’t expect my parents to continue to finance my [education].” Malakar, 26, is from Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh, “where you won’t find a single engineering college”, she added. She works at an information technology company in Gurgaon and took the day off to join the protest

Kalom Lego, one of the protesters.

“IITs decision has totally neglected the poor students who cannot afford the fees. Now, those who are poor but deserving would not have the opportunity to study here while the rich students are taken in,” said Kalom Lego, an undergraduate student of engineering who had travelled from Arunachal Pradesh to Delhi in search of good quality coaching to prepare for the entrance exam.