Give 1% of earnings to Alma Mater, IITs to tell students

New Delhi: IITs are set to appeal to outgoing students to consider contributing up to 1% of their annual earnings to their alma mater.
The proposal, based on the recommendations made by some IIT directors, was given a go ahead in the meeting of the IIT Council on Friday, ET has learnt. The members agreed students should be “encouraged to contribute 1% of their earnings to their alma mater”.
The proposal is in line with income-share arrangement followed in many universities abroad.“This will enhance IITs’ revenue, which can be used for further growth and development,” the proposal said.
The members said this will be in the nature of appeal to outgoing students — asking them to contribute to the growth of their institute.
“It will only be an appeal. IITs will simply ask their passing out batch to consider this as an option. Many foreign universities follow the practice of having the outgoing batch pledge a certain portion of their earnings to the alma mater. This is one way of making an institute self-sustainable,” said a member who attended the council meeting.
IIT alumni are known to bag big salary packages. As per 2017-18 placement data, median salary at IIT Bombay crossed the seven figure mark. Over 10 IITians won packages of over a crore on completing their B Tech, as per the data. The older IITs are pro-actively tapping into their strong alumni base to raise endowment funds and the quantum has been steadily increasing over the past few years.
For IITs, self-sustainability is an important concern. IITs are seeking an autonomy framework similar to the one given to IIMs last year through an act of Parliament. While various financial autonomy models are being considered, a key hurdle is the high dependency of the 23 institutes on government funding.
IITs must move towards financial sustainability if they are looking for greater autonomy, said an official.