IITs may soon decide their own fee structure

Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) may soon be allowed to set their own fee structure without consulting the apex council governing the prestigious institution.

According to sources, the move to give a free hand to the institution's various campuses is aimed at enhancing their autonomy.

"The Board of Governors are likely to be given the authority to decide the fee structure for the respective IIT. Currently, they are part of the fee deciding process but are not the final authority," a source said.

However, it wasn't immediately clear whether the idea if approved, will be applicable to all IITs or limited campuses.

At present, the fee structure is determined by the IIT council, the top decision-making body, which is chaired by the Union human resource development minister and includes IIT directors and board of governors of each institute.

The IITs are autonomous public institutes of higher education. The 23 IITs are located in following cities: Bhilai, Chennai, Delhi, Dhanbad, Dharwad, Goa, Guwahati, Jammu, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Roorkee, Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Indore, Jodhpur, Mandi, Palakkad, Patna, Ropar, Tirupati and Varanasi.