New Delhi: MTech students in IITs will now have to pay more with the IIT Council on Friday approving a fee increase to bring it to the level of BTech courses.
The Council chaired by Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal also approved the 'tenure track pathway' to decide whether a new faculty member is going 'up' or 'out' after a fifth year review of his or her performance. The agenda item 'Reform of the MTech Programs' stated that "Proactively increase the MTech fee and bring it at least to the level of BTech fee (Rs 2 lakh per year) over the next three years. Simultaneously the needy students should be supported directly by the government through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) or arranging educational loans."

The proposal has been made based on the recommendations of a three-member committee on reforms on MTech programme in IITs. "The committee had recommended uniform fee structure for M.Tech programme in all IITs and for charging the same fee for M Tech as in B Tech programmes. Institutions are encouraged to move towards sponsored students or even sponsored programmes as per requirement of industry," the official said. OCI card holders will now be exempted from taking the JEE Mains exam for admission to IITs and will be directly be able to take the advanced exam, according to HRD Ministry. For promoting IITs as global education destinations, the IIT council decided that foreign students including the OCI card holders with foreign passport and those have studied abroad - would be provided direct entry to appear in the JEE Advanced examinations.