NEW DELHI (TIP): Seven top Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will be allowed to fix their own fee structure without consulting the apex council that governs these premier institutes for technical education in the country.

The move to grant them fee autonomy is part of a larger project called Vishwajeet, which is aimed at assisting the IITs to improve their global university rankings. None of the IITs are in the top 200 of the prestigious Times Higher Education World University Ranking for 2016-17, in which IIT Bombay is the lone entry in the 351-400 rankings.

“The decision to fix the fee of students would be delegated to the board of governors (BoG) of these institutions,” a source said.

At present, the fee structure is determined by the IIT council, the top decision-making body, which is chaired by the Union human resource development minister and includes IIT directors and board of governors of each institute.

Each IIT charges Rs 2 lakh from BTech students, though these institutes spend almost Rs 6 lakh a year on each student.