FTII approves fee hiking in various courses, rejects age limit for admission

The academic council of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), at a meeting held in Mumbai Friday, gave nod for hiking the fees of various courses by 10 per cent with 2015 as the base year.

The council, however, did not approve the proposal of the institute’s administration to fix an upper age limit of 25 years for admission.

The meeting was presided over by B P Singh. The administration of the premier film institute had proposed to increase the fee of acting course from Rs 48,000 to Rs 3.40 lakh per annum.

It had said that the fees should have been raised by 10 per cent every year, but no revision was done in the recent years. It had proposed the hike with 2010 as the base year.

“The council has decided that there would be 10 per cent increase in tuitions fees for all courses per annum, however, the hike will be done taking 2015 as the base year instead of proposed 2010,” a release by FTII said this evening.

“The council has decided to stick to the existing policy where there is no upper age limit to take admission for any course in the institute,” it said.

Bhupendra Kainthola, Director, FTII, told PTI that the council had approved the proposal to make the written entrance test as a qualifying entrance examination for short-listing the candidates. Short-listed candidates would undertake orientation programme including written aptitude test followed by an interview, with 50 per cent weightage each.

A psychometric test will be introduced as a part of entrance examination for both TV and Film courses, he said. FTII Students Association claimed that it was only because of its protest and resistance by the students that the council did not hike fees with 2010 as the base year, as was proposed by the administration.