The New World Institution Tag Might Come with Hefty Fees!

There are some of India’s premier institutes and universities that can earn a new world-class institute tag. These institutes will be free to fix their fee structure, resulting in fee hike fears. These institutes will be free to admit foreign students, but only 30 percent of the total seats. A completely separate mechanism will be fixed for the so called world class institutes. The government announced to set up 20 such institutes in the 2022-17 budgets, reserving half for private institutes.

The world-class institutes will be ranked on the basis of their healthy faculty-student ratio and a top 25 position under the National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF). Other than these rankings, institutes must have modern laboratories and a large campus with adequate space for expansion.
Institutes like Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Hyderabad and a number of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) meet all the criteria mentioned above. Government institutions will have the freedom to determine domestic student fees, but no student can be sent away for failing to the pay the said amount. Such students will be provided education loans or scholarships. The proposed criteria, however, vary for private or deemed universities. They will not get any government financial backing.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has placed a set of proposed regulations and guidelines for these institutions, which are up for public scrutiny and feedback till October 28.

Government tagging some of the institutes world-class is definitely a step towards development. However, giving freedom to decide over fixing fees is debatable. It can pose a problem for many aspirants, as it will lead them to think twice about enrolling themselves for their desired courses.