Student's corner

Is the recent 100 per cent fee hike at National Institutes of Technology justified?

Dear Students,
 
LAST WEEK WE ASKED:  Do you think the recent 100 per cent fee hike at National Institutes of Technology (NITs) is justified?

BEST RESPONSE

The recent fee hike to Rs 70,000 should be seen vis-a-vis other premier institution like IIT which charge Rs 90,000 from students.The fee hike will help NIT to balance the subsidy ratio, and also aid the expenditure of the NITs. The proposed hike will also bring parity among fee being charged by the NITs and provide with much needed autonomy. With loan facility available students will not find difficult to bear the fee. Moreover, prices of everything including electricity, laboratory material, supplies, and software have gone up. There needs to be a way by which we can mitigate some costs at least.

- Nilaya Mitash Shanker, IIT Roorkee.

OTHER RESPONSES

If a common man is facing inflation day in day out, will not the NITs? For the NITs to maintain their stature and produce quality & employable students, they primarily need two things: state-of-art infrastructure and top quality faculties. These two come at a price and now that the government is reducing the grants & subsidies all over, institutes need funds. If students & parents can afford foreign education at a high cost, this rise in fees should also be affordable.

- Anand A Wadadekar, SAMVIT School of Infrastructure Business, Pune.

Fees hike in NITs is keeping pace with the price hike in all walks of our life in recent situation. But the reasons cited for such shocking decision has itself many flaws. Firstly mimicking the hike in IITs, NITs are not at par with them in terms of placements, research scope and quality of education imparted.  Secondly there are many other ways to achieve financial autonomy for the institution and fees hike will only burden the meritorious student from middle class and lower middle class families which may persuade them to study in private colleges where there are better facilities.

- Dipika Sahoo, College of Engineering & Technology, Bhubaneswar.

NITs are state-of-the-art institutes only next to the IITs. Thereby these institutes need a lot of resources but the drastic hike isn't justified. Agreed, these institutes have a low fees vis-a-vis private institutes but they are owned by the govt and so the focus should be public good and not profit. If the government is facing a fiscal burden, the common man too is reeling under inflation pressure. Even if the fees has to be increased, there is a certain lack of support structure since the concessional student loans and all-inclusive scholarships for needy and meritorious students are missing.

- Vatsal Seth, Kamla Nehru College, Delhi University.

National institutes of technology.The creme de la creme of technical education in India.The recent fee hike at these institutes is a welcome move in a bid to make them autonomous and self sustaining.But a 100 percent fee hike will aggravate the problems of the student community as it is bound to push the education cost beyond the comfort level.With a grim placement scenario in the light of global financial meltdown, the policy makers have got their numbers and timing all but wrong.This is a decision which requires honest introspection.

- Eshan Gupta, Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar.

The recent fee hike in NITs is justified as it is high time that our government institutes gain financial autonomy so that they can focus on research and capacity boosting rather than looking upto govt. for support and funds at every step The NITs are imparting quality education to a very large student base who get recruited in well paid jobs at a very nominal fee structure . The fee structure at NITs is now at par with the IITs which are also govt. funded so it makes sense to have similar fee structure.

- Swar Grover, GNDU, Amritsar.

Rise of 100 per cent in NIT fee is very much justified with the current scenario. As we know that there are many private institutes who are charging much higher than NITs, but still students from all the levels of income taking admission to these colleges. What does it show? It shows that nowadays students are more confident and are not hesitating while taking education loan for pursuing their higher studies. Therefore, when the institutes like NITs do this, there should not be any problem because the average package from these institutes are way above than any other private institute.

- Asad Saeed, SDM Institute of Management Development, Mysore.

The NITs' decision to increase the fee from Rs 35000 to Rs 70000 per year for the academic year 2014-15 is a step to bring uniformity in the fee across all NITs, since there was variation in fees ranging from Rs 17000 to Rs 35000. It is also noted that the fee waiver will be continued for various categories. This fee change can help in generating 50 per cent of the faculty salary from within institute. This is a measure to convert NITs into autonomous bodies, by getting accreditation from NBA and enable India to become member of the Washington Accord.

- Mithun JB, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME), Bangalore.

A 100 per cent fee hike at the National Institute of Technology is justified as it will help reduce it's dependence on government grants and will help to generate it's own funds,which will further help in providing latest technology,better education and infrastructure to the students.At the same time the money can be used to waive off the fees of the students from poor economic background.

- Jatin Kashyap, Post Graduate Government College, Chandigarh.

Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:  Do you think there should be a single entrance test for B-schools just like JEE Mains and Advance?