IIT Delhi has become the latest battleground for the resource generation policy of the Narendra Modi government in higher education.

The coveted tech school has increased the fees for MTech and PhD students — under one head by as much as 120 per cent — and partially rolled back the rates in the face of protests by students in a virtual rerun of the two-steps-forward-one-step-backward tactic seen in IIT Bombay recently.

IIT Delhi on Friday partially rolled back the hike in fees for MTech and PhD programmes following protests. However, students, who have been protesting for the last two days, are not satisfied with the partial rollback.The first semester fees for PG students had been increased from Rs 19,650 to Rs 41,300, a 120 per cent hike.

The institute brought it down to Rs 31,900, which is still much higher than the fee till last year.The tuition fee, which was increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000, has been revised to Rs 17,500.

The examination fee of Rs 1,000, which was doubled, has now been brought down to Rs 1,500. In a media statement, IIT Delhi said it had reduced the fees on the basis of recommendations of a committee set up by the director to look into representations made by MTech students.

“As a result, the tuition fee and other charges have been reduced significantly…. In addition to the tuition fee, there is a reduction in other components of fees as well,” the statement said.However, the students are demanding a complete rollback of the hike, also citing the pandemic-induced financial crunch.

“The board of governors took the decision of a fee hike. No student was present when the fees were raised. After the protest, the institute has partially rolled back the hiked fees but this is not acceptable to us. Our protest will go on from September 5,” a student said.

The students will put the protest on hold for Saturday and Sunday because of functions at the institute.Last month, IIT Bombay decided to partially withdraw the increased fee in the face of protests by students. The education ministry is in the process of changing the nature of the functioning of centrally funded educational institutions. Since the Modi government came to power, it has been asking the institutions to raise funds from their own resources. Most of the IITs have already started approaching their alumni for donations.

In June, the ministry asked each central university to set up a separate fund with donations from their alumni.A ministry official said the tech institutes had hiked fees after being prodded by the education ministry to raise funds internally. Instead of giving grants to expand infrastructure, the education ministry has set up the Higher Education Funding Agency, which extends loans to institutions repayable after about 10 years.