At a time when institutes are increasing tuition fees, Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu) has taken the reverse path to attract merit.

The university has slashed the tuition fees for IT and architecture to Rs 1,000 a month, hoping to draw high performers who might otherwise choose to pay a little more and study in a private college.

The revised fee structure, effective from the academic session beginning July, will benefit the second, third and fourth-year batches, too. Students of the IT course paid Rs 2,500 a month until the end of the last academic session and those studying architecture Rs 1,500.

A private engineering college charges a student Rs 41,000 as annual tuition fees for the same courses, which works out to around Rs 3,500 a month.

“We being the premier engineering institution of Bengal, our aim is to attract meritorious students to our undergraduate courses. The introduction of a uniform fee structure will draw more good students to the IT and architecture courses,” registrar Biman Bandyopadhyay said.

Of the 10 subjects in which Besu offers undergraduate courses, only the fees for IT and architecture were higher than Rs 1,000.

The institution charged more for these courses in the past four years to meet the expenditure on recruitment of teachers. “There was a shortage of teachers in the two departments and we could not wait for the government to sanction extra posts. So, we got teachers on contract and mobilised funds required to pay salaries through extra tuition fees,” an official said.

The government has since sanctioned the teaching posts and begun providing funds, enabling Besu to reduce fees.

Besu has 60 seats in the IT course and 24 in architecture.