With a 79% fee hike, studying at the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) is going to be an expensive affair from the 2016-17 academic year. Council of NITs unanimously decided to increase the tuition fee from Rs 70,000 to Rs 1,25,000 per student per annum from this academic year onwards. This revision came about after the NITs ninth council meeting held on October 1, 2015.

As mentioned in a release by the Ministry of Human Resource Department, revision of fees in the NITs is followed on the proposal of adopting a funding mechanism like Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). NITs raised the tuition fees for the creation of capital assets, research grants, and covering of recurring expenditure.

However, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe, Physically Handicapped, and those with annual family income of up to Rs one lakh are eligible for a full fee waiver, and those with family income less than Rs five lakh, for two-thirds fee exemption.

The press note also stated that the students currently studying at any of the 31 NITs would continue to pay the existing rates of Rs 70,000.