IITs attracting foreign students
New Delhi: Under the chairmanship of the HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, the first IIT Council meeting is expected frame a multi-pronged policy, including introducing scholarships and reducing fee to attract more foreign students at post-graduate level in the institutes.
The meeting will also decide on allowing the IITs to put extra seats for foreign students at post graduate level to ensure that youths from other countries take part in research and development in a big way. The foreign students are paying a much higher amount as compared to the Indian students at present. There are two different fee structures, one for the students of SAARC countries and another for the students of other nations.
"However, both the fee regimes entail to much more spending than what the Indian students pay," said an IIT Director. The numbers of foreign students are very less in the IITs, mainly because of the high fees. "IITs attract mainly students from the developing countries. These students find it difficult to pay the huge amount and develop a cold feet on coming here," said the Director.
The council will approve the revised pay structure of the IIT faculty. The new pay structure had already attracted criticism from the IIT faculty which went on a hunger strike on September 25. The faculty also demanded abolition of contractual appointment at entry level. The Minister told them that the government "guidelines are just norms and there can be flexibility or relaxation in exceptional cases."
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