THE Students’ Federation of India Delhi state committee organised a protest demonstration at the UGC headquarters against the steep increase in the fees for the CSIR-UGC NET/JRF examinations. In a recent notification, UGC decided to increase the application fee for CSIR UGC NET 2015 by a whopping 150 per cent across different categories without any reason. Hundreds of students from JNU, Delhi University, Jamia and Ambedkar University raised slogans against this move which clearly derives from the agenda of commercialisation of education, which is being pursued by the Modi regime. The escalation in commercialisation under the Congress-led UPA has speeded further under the current regime. One must understand that NET is a qualifying exam for teaching in colleges and universities across the country. Over the years many academicians and students have expressed worry over the poor standard (with focus on rote learning) of these examinations which forces even the best of the students to write these exams many times. Such a huge hike will surely act as a hindrance in the path of the students from socially-economically backward sections to enter academics and research. The scale of this fee hike has been so large that it far outweighs even the biggest neo-liberal apologists. Ever since the onset of the neo-liberal reforms from the 1990s, the various central governments that held power have continuously harped on how India cannot fund its own higher education and have always insisted on “internal resource mobilisation” in the universities as being the perfect solution to the problem. This internal resource mobilisation, if we go by the guidelines of the Punnayya Committee report of 1992, mean that universities need to meet 15-25 per cent of their recurring expenditure through mobilising internal resources by increasing the various fees of the university including tuition fees, examination fees and fees pertaining to hostels, messes, libraries etc. Paradoxically, this logic of internal revenue mobilisation is now sought to be implemented at the level of the UGC which allocates funds to various places of higher education in the country. With this step, what the NDA government wants to do is to completely wash its hands off higher education in the country by passing its burden on to the vast masses of students in the country while red carpets are rolled out for corporate entry in higher education in the country. A two member delegation, including Dr V Sivadasan, all India president of SFI and Sunand, Delhi state secretary of SFI, met the UGC officials with the demand to roll back the fee hike and make arrangements to reimburse those students who have already paid the fees. UGC officials assured that the demands would be forwarded to the NET committee which is in charge of conducting the examination. The delegation categorically stated that if the fee hike is not withdrawn within one week, then a bigger demonstration would be organised at the UGC headquarters. It is in this context that the central executive committee of SFI gave a call for nationwide signature campaign and all India protests on March 4. SFI Delhi state committee organised a brave protest on March 4 at MHRD against the massive fee hike in the CSIR/UGC NET exams. Students from DU, JNU, Jamia; along with those from neighbouring state of Haryana had joined the protest. Signature campaign was being organised throughout the country and sent to the MHRD, asking minister Smriti Irani to intervene. In Delhi itself around 2000 signatures were collected in just two days. More than 30,000 signatures from different parts of the country are on their way to the MHRD. A two member delegation, comprising of all India joint secretary, Shatarup Ghosh and Delhi state secretary, Sunand went inside for talks and met the PA to the MHRD minister and other officials. MHRD had a weird logic to explain their helplessness. They said that these institutions are autonomous and hence the ministry can’t intervene. UGC secretary also wanted to shirk off his responsibility by saying that fees and other modalities are decided by CBSE and CISR ( organising agencies for humanities/social sciences and sciences respectively)- which is nothing but a plain lie, as the annual reports of UGC would tell clearly. It is clear that this logic of autonomy is nothing but an excuse to push fee hike and fund cuts.