‘Unfair…we have no option’: IIT Gandhinagar students question retroactive fee hike, seek rollback

“The problem is not the fee hike itself. The issue is that this hike has been implemented retroactively for a semester whose fees we had already paid in May,” said a student from the batch, asking for anonymity. “If the new structure were applicable from the next semester, we would have no issues at all,” the student added.

IIT Gandhinagar officials were unavailable for comment.

Students said the timeline of communication left them trapped. The offer letter and fee structure were shared on April 10, with May 1 as the deadline for confirmation and fee payment. The full refund deadline was May 16, and the half refund deadline was June 1. But the fee hike was decided on June 21, weeks after these deadlines had passed. “By the time we were officially informed on September 3, we had no option to withdraw, seek refunds, or explore other academic opportunities,” another IIT Gandhinagar student pointed out. The deadline to pay the revised fees was September 15.

By contrast, MSc students at the institute were informed about the revision as early as July 10. “This delay has put our batch in a uniquely disadvantaged position,” students in the MA semester 1 said.

Several of them raised the issue with the dean of student affairs, both individually and during the recent Open House. “The dean said it is beyond the scope of his office. Some of us tried meeting the director, but were redirected back to the dean. It feels like going in circles,” said another student from the same batch.

The fee hike, students calculate, would amount to nearly Rs 40,000 more over the two-year course duration. For many, this is a financial burden they had not planned for.

“Some of us simply cannot afford this additional fee. Extending the payment deadline on a case-by-case basis does not solve the problem—there are people who cannot pay at all,” a student added.

While the institute’s admission brochure did mention that “the fee structure is likely to be revised,” students argue that applying this revision after a few weeks of commencement of classes, mid-semester, violates the spirit of fair communication. “Any revision should be informed in advance, before payment deadlines and withdrawal dates. Not after,” they said.

Students are now seeking clarity from the administration and urging that the revised structure be implemented only from the next semester.

While several students, including those whose parents urged them to “just get it done,” have already paid the revised fees, many others struggling with affordability continue to wait for a response from the IIT Gandhinagar director after the institute refused to roll back the hike.

Second-year students also reported a revision. “Our fees went up by around Rs 6,300, but we were informed at the time of fee submission itself. So it was not sudden for us,” one of them said, contrasting their situation with that of the first-years.