COVID-19 Impact: Education Minister orders no tuition fee hike in IITs, IIITs for upcoming academic year

Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nishank" stated, “IITs and IIITs will not hike the tuition fees for any course for the upcoming academic year.”

Amid the rising cash crunch, economic crisis and loss of job opportunities due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus, Ministry of Human Resource and Development directed Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIITs) not to increase tuition fees. According to the reports, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nishank" stated, “IITs and IIITs will not hike the tuition fees for any course for the upcoming academic year.” The ministry took the decision regarding IITs after consulting the chairman of the Standing Committee of the IIT Council and directors of the institutes. The decision is taken keeping in view of the hardships students are facing due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

However, In the case of the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), the decision is taken considering that the institutes that are centrally-funded, the standard 10-per cent hike in the tuition fee for undergraduate programmes will not be implemented this year. According to reports, a BTech student pays an annual fee of Rs 2 lakh in IITs.

The deadly coronavirus infected over 2.5 million people worldwide. The virus ruptured the global economy and resulted in the loss of jobs and a lack of job opportunities. Unfortunately, the contagious virus has not spared the graduates of the premier institutes such as IITs and IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management). Many reports suggest that companies revoked the job offered that were made to the students of IITs and IIMs during placement drives. However, IITs, earlier this month, announced that they will hold special placement drives for those students whose job offers got cancelled amid the coronavirus outbreak.

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