IITs Hostels in New Delhi Expected To Hike the Charges

New Delhi: Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) hostels are all set to hike their hostel charges significantly from the Rs 850 a semester charged at present. The announcement was made by a top IIT and government sources. Also, according to the sources, the decision of the IIT Council to remove hostel fees from a list of statutory fees last week will facilitate the hike in hostel fees.

IIT Council is the highest decision-making body of the institute. Over 10,000 students cutting across streams and including undergraduate and postgraduate students live in the hostels of India’s 15 IITs.

According to the statement of an IIT Director one could call the decision to allow a hike in hostel fees some compensation to allow them to reduce the subsidy to students. He also added that the current hostel fees are paltry and set decades back. It is ridiculous to continue with the same figure now.

As per sources, till the approval of the IIT Council last Friday, hostel fees were among a number of fees that were fixed under statues and could only be changed by statutory amendments. Now, the board of governors of each IIT will independently decide the amount by which it will hike the hostel fees.

In addition, sources also indicated that IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay and IIT Madras are expected to hike their hostel fees the most using the argument that living in hostel would still be much cheaper than finding accommodation outside campus in these cities. The IITs follow a residential education model, with lectures and assignments that require students to generally live on or near the campus.

(Source:www.hindustantimes.com)