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A council meeting held on 27th September 2019 brought forth a proposal as part of the financial autonomy for IITs. The proposal suggested that they will be enrolling more students who pay the entire tuition fee which will cover their running costs such as salaries and maintenance costs.
At a meeting that had been conducted by the IIT council, the Indian Institutes of Technology have proposed that the tuitions fees will cover the different running fees such as the salaries and maintenance, as part of their financial autonomy model. They added that they will be increasing the overall intake of students who pay the entire fees so as to boost the revenue of the institutions.
As per the present situation, candidates belonging to the different reserved categories especially EWS category students pay a fee that is sizeably lower than normal fees. At the meeting, it had been mentioned that the financial autonomy of the IITs should not entail the withdrawal of government from supporting the premier engineering institutes.
The council also maintained that the salaries and other running costs be met through the tuitions fees that are being received by the college. However, they added that the cost of servicing the infrastructures be borne by the loan from the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA).
The council pressed on the continued support from the state governments. They added that it will be beneficial if the governments provide the students from different socio-economic backgrounds with direct scholarships. The stated that the government’s support in the matter will ensure that the students will be able to gain quality education at a subsidized price.
The IITs have proposed that they will admit those students who pay the entire fees as has been mentioned by the Institute, thus facilitating the coverage of the running costs of the institutes. They stated they will be admitting the students as per their admission policy along with the reserved category students. The admission of the reserved category students will continue as per the agreement between the IITs and the Government.
A director of one of the IITs has stated that financial autonomy will enable the institutes to reduce the number of restrictions in revenue generation. It will also allow them to conduct different institutional activities and be independent of government funds. He added that the IITs are currently completely dependent on the funds and budget of the Government.
As per an agenda paper on Financial Autonomy, as a result of complete dependence of the institutions on government funds, the institutions would receive scarce opportunities to innovate. The paper added that the institutions will need to make their own decisions as well as create their own programmes, which require financial autonomy to ensure that they are able to compete at a global level.
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As per the proposal, IITs should not receive any lesser financial aid from the Government after the implementation of financial autonomy, in comparison of the financial aid received currently by the Institutes.
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The Human Resource Development Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal stated that the institutions need autonomy as part of their model for growth and innovations. However, the proposals for financial autonomy should be analysed, for which a committee will be formed and a decision will be made afterwards, he stated.
