IIT Delhi Fee Hike: MTech students protest against '100% fee hike', demand affordable education

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi MTech students have gathered inside the campus for a silent sit-in protest against 100% fee hike. Demanding IIT Delhi to immediately withdraw the fee hike, the students have asked the institute to address the concerns of students “for their equal right to affordable education”.

The situation is more or less similar in the old and new IITs as well. IIT Bombay, Guwahati, Mandi, Gandhinagar – have reported fee hikes in the 20%-50% range for new entrants and enrolled students from this year. The students’ collective, Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) IIT Bombay have expressed solidarity with the ongoing protest.

“The institute has completely withdrawn from its responsibility of providing subsidized education to all its students and is gradually adopting a private university model where only the privileged few can have access to education,” the protesting students said.

Saying that the massive hike in fee will not only affect MTech students but also students across the programmes, they said, “The total academic fee for full time MTech students being admitted this semester (2022-2023) has been hiked by 100% to Rs 53,100 (excluding hostel fees) from what was charged earlier (Rs 26,450). Within this amount, the 'tuition fee' has been hiked by 150% from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 for one semester.”

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Monthly stipend that a full-time MTech student receives is a meagre sum of Rs 12,400. “This essentially means that two-third of the stipend amount for a semester is directly exhausted in payment towards the semester fee. If we also consider hostel boarding and mess charges, which too have sharply increased this year, the message from the administration is very clear: the degrees are for those who can pay.”

The students group protesting against the IIT Delhi fees went on to say, “It infuriates us to witness how education in India's premier public institution is becoming a commodity to be bought rather than a right that can be accessed by all students.”

PhD fee hiked by 64%

Besides MTech, for the full-time PhD students admitted this semester, the tuition fee has been hiked by 64% from Rs 20,150 to Rs 30,850 (inclusive of hostel seat rent).

Additionally, for new hostels on campus, the mess and facility charges are Rs 28,000 per semester and Rs 4,273 per month respectively are double the charges for the same in the old hostels, which was Rs 30,000 per semester. “This logic of 'pay more for better facilities' cannot be a principle which a public institution should follow.”

“With the institute gradually withdrawing the subsidies it provided earlier, the entire cost of staying on campus is now being borne by hostelers who cannot even claim Housing Renting Allowance (HRA).”

IIT Delhi Fee Hike: Silent sit-in protest by students (Image: Twitter/@against_fee_hik)

The students also said that the fee hike will only result in increased stress and anxiety among students, particularly students coming from marginalized sections.

“The IIT Delhi fee hike also indicates that education in the premiere institute can only be availed through loans, which further propels a vicious cycle of debt”, they said.

The institute in January decided to set up an Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI). However, the students claimed that “the reality remains that a large section of marginalized students is already being structurally excluded from becoming a part of the institute and participating in the learning process due to unaffordable fees and violation of constitutionally mandated reservation policy.”

Similarly, the IIT Bombay students went on hunger-strike and continuously protested against the IIT Bombay fee hike until the institute partially rolled back. The protest spanned over nine months.