Students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay held a protest rally in the Powai Campus on Thursday against the huge fee hike among other new revamps in MTech. (Masters in Technology) policies. Over 100 students pursuing the Masters Degree course participated in the protest rally that was held as a response to the national-level call for protest given by the IIT-BHU against the reforms. The rally was followed by a meeting to discuss the future course of protests to oppose the revamps.

According to information provided by the students, On  September 26,  the  53rd  IIT Council meeting headed by the state HRD minister to approve a  ten-fold increase  in MTech course fee and to discontinuing the stipend to MTech students. The current tuition fee for the MTech program in IITs may vary between Rs 30000  to  Rs 50000  per  year.  All M. Tech students are now getting Rs 12400 monthly stipend.  Now the council has decided to increase the M Tech course fee to  Rs  2lakh/year, to discontinue  the stipend given to  M. Tech students and  to encourage more industry-sponsored  MTech students.  The revised fees are even higher than the tuition fee in self-financing institutions. The fee hike and stipend cut will reserve the education in IITs to only the socially and economically privileged.