While fresh admissions to the prestigious IITs are on, numerous prospective IITians and their concerned parents have given feedback regarding the troubles they are facing with student loan procurement. This development is post the recent two-fold fee hike for UG courses at IIT by the HRD Ministry. Last revised in 2013, it has now been hiked from Rs. 90,000 to more than Rs. 2 lakh.

Along with the revision of fees, the Ministry is known to have declared all-inclusive benefits such as complete and partial fee waiver for certain student sections. The Ministry has also announced loan assistance under the “Vidyalakshmi” scheme, hereby making provision for those who don’t belong to these categories. The Vidyalakshmi portal has tied up with various banks to provide loans through this platform.

While previously enrolled students continue to pay as per the previous fee structure, new students’ enrollment requires them to meet the revised fee structure. Many students who don’t belong to the fee-waiver are looking to avail interest-free loans to fund their IIT dream. They are admittedly facing problems while trying to meet the sharp rise in fee. When brought to notice by distraught parents and students, the Human Resource Ministry is said to have assured that these problems would be solved.

A statement by a senior official revealed that the Ministry is currently toying with various ideas to explicitly resolve this roadblock. Officials also hinted that one solution could be a fund that could satisfy the interest component for extending the benefit of interest-free loans to students.