NIT Calicut Vs IIIT Kottayam for CSE: Which one will you choose?

Indian Express

5 days ago

Selecting the right institute to pursue your dream engineering course is a key reason why over a million students appear for JEE Main each year. With India home to numerous top-tier engineering colleges, making an informed decision is both essential and often overwhelming. For those who couldn't clear JEE Advanced, NITs and IIITs offer excellent alternatives.
In this article, we compare NIT Calicut and IIIT Kottayam across various parameters to help you make a smart and well-informed choice for your BTech CSE journey.
NIT Calicut
The National Institute of Technology Calicut (NIT Calicut or NIT-C) is a public engineering institution recognised as an Institute of National Importance under the NIT Act enacted by the Indian Parliament. Founded in 1961, it originally operated under the name Calicut Regional Engineering College (CREC) until its rechristening in 2002.
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IIIT Kottayam
The Indian Institute of Information Technology, Kottayam ( IIIT Kottayam or IIITK) is an autonomous technical institution situated in Valavoor in Kerala's Kottayam district. Established in 2015 under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, it was initiated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), with collaborative support from the Government of India, the Government of Kerala, and industry partners. In 2017, IIIT Kottayam attained the status of an Institute of National Importance through the enactment of the IIIT PPP Act.
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NIT Calicut
For the BTech programme at NIT Calicut in 2025-26, students' fees are categorised based on family income and admission quota. Students from the Open, EWS, and OBC (NCL) categories with a family income above Rs 5 lakh per annum need to pay Rs 1,42,600 in the Monsoon semester, which includes Rs 62,500 as tuition fee, Rs 19,100 as other fees, and a one-time fee of Rs 61,000 at the time of admission.
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Those with a family income between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh are charged Rs 1,00,934 in the first Monsoon semester, with a reduced tuition fee of Rs 20,834 per semester.
For students with a family income less than Rs 1 lakh, and all SC/ST/PwD students, there is no tuition fee, and the total payable in the Monsoon semester stands at Rs 80,100, which mainly covers other institutional and one-time charges.
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IIIT Kottayam
Here is a breakdown of the IIIT Kottayam BTech CSE Fee Structure (2025) as mentioned on the official website. For the BTech in Computer Science and Engineering programme at IIIT Kottayam, the total fee over four years is approximately Rs 11.96 lakh. This includes:
–Tuition Fee: Rs 1,45,200 per semester
–Hostel and Facility Maintenance: Starts at Rs 34,000 and increases gradually each year
–Mess Advance: Begins at Rs 30,750 per semester
Additional charges include medical insurance, equipment maintenance, club activities, and one-time fees like caution deposit and convocation fee. The fee may vary slightly based on admission category (e.g., DASA/CIWG) and semester. A student can find the full breakdown of the fee structure on IIIT Kottayam's official admission page.
NIT Calicut
The Calicut-based institute ranked 25th under the engineering category of the National Institutional Ranking Framework 2024. The Institute scored 61.19 points in the rankings. On the other hand, in the management category of the NIRF, it ranked 76 with a score of 47.55.
IIIT Kottayam
The Kottayam-based engineering institute did not rank under the engineering category of the NIRF. The same goes for the NIRF 2023 rankings.
NIT Calicut
In 2024, the highest package offered to a CSE undergraduate touched an impressive Rs 50.64 LPA, while the average package stood at Rs 19.37 LPA. Across all undergraduate programmes, the overall average salary was Rs 12.41 LPA, and the CSE placement rate soared to 96.77 per cent.
Over 208 companies participated in the recruitment drive, resulting in more than 1,080 offers. Firms such as Amazon, Oracle, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Atlassian, and Cisco were among the top recruiters.
IIIT Kottayam
Over the past five academic years, IIIT Kottayam has shown a consistent rise in both placement offers and salary packages. In the 2020-21 session, the institute recorded a highest CTC of Rs 36 LPA with an average package of Rs 9.07 LPA, offering placements to 44 students and generating 97 job offers.
The 2021-22 placements saw an improvement, with the highest package touching Rs 42 LPA, an average of Rs 10.45 LPA, and 67 individual placements out of 212 total offers.
The 2022-23 batch achieved a remarkable jump, securing the highest package of Rs 58.93 LPA, an average of Rs 14.32 LPA, 84 individual placements, and 144 job offers.
In 2023-24, the highest CTC stood at Rs 45 LPA, with the average package at Rs 12.70 LPA; this session witnessed 128 individual placements and 171 offers. The latest 2024-25 placement cycle recorded a highest CTC of Rs 50 LPA, an average salary of Rs 11.91 LPA, with 178 students placed and 219 total offers made.
NIT Calicut
Other than BTech and engineering programmes, the Institute has a Department for Humanities, Arts and Social Science (HAS). The Department provides undergraduate students with foundational courses in Economics and English Studies and PhD programmes.
The research offerings span a wide array of areas such as Behavioural Economics, Gender and Micro Economics, Early Childhood Education, Queer and Translation Studies, Cultural and Film Studies, Memory Studies, and advanced topics in English Studies. The Institute also has a management programme that offers an MBA and a PhD.
IIIT Kottayam
The Institute has only engineering-related fields. Apart from BTech and MTech, it offers BTech in cyber security and data sciences as separate courses. It has an option of e-MTech for the students. The Institute also provides an Integrated MTech course for working professionals in AI and data science. The admissions for the Integrated course will start from August 2025.