IIIT entry form to cost Rs 250

The state government has devised a new admission policy for IIITs from this year to do away with “everything for free” tag attached with IIITs.

Admission will not be given “by invitation” this year, but rather, students will have to apply to seek seats in the IIITs after SSC.

The government has decided to collect Rs 250 from each student who applies for application forms. For the last two years, the government has been selecting students for IIITs mandal-wise, on its own, based on the merit secured in SSC without collecting any application fee.

However, “financial constraint” have forced the government to seek registration charges from this year.

The Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, which runs the three IIITs in Idupulapaya, Nuzividu and Basar, will issue a fresh admission notification on March 26 with the revised admission norms.

Known to be the “dream project” of then chief minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, the three IIITs were launched during the 2008-09 academic year with an intake of 2,000 seats in each.

The concept became an instant success as there was no entrance exam and admissions were given purely on merit secured in SSC exam with free hostel and mess facilities.

The government has been incurring an expenditure of Rs 1 lakh on each student every year (after this year’s admission, the number of students will rise to 36,000).

The government allotted Rs 1,200 crore in the first year, which came down to Rs 900 crore in the second year. The present financial constraints has forced the government to allot just Rs 600 crore this year.

In this backdrop, the government realised that the “everything for free” tag has to be changed.

The government is expected to levy some more charges on students before the commencement of new academic year.