 Since the BJP came to power, there has been a systematic, head-fast dismantling of public-funded higher education institutes in India. In the 11th five-year plan, 2007-12, the UPA government gave grants to start study centres that made a strong case for inclusiveness and substantial allocations for the creation and expansion of centres of specialised education to be developed as a full-fledged disciplines with teaching, research and extension activities. Women's studies, social exclusion and human rights studies were included in this expansion. SUT centres championed a new and critical research agenda powered by new faculty and students of intersectional approaches to caste, class and gender. Now these centres are facing cutbacks in funding from the University Grants Commission or more popularly known as the UGC. The UGC has cut funding for social science research centres which are majorly study centres for women, Dalit and other marginalised communities. These centres are mainly dependent on government funding, hence face the danger of closure in case of fund cuts. For example, an immediate fallout of the cutback can be cited. In Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the administration had issued relieving letters to a number of teachers and researchers belonging to three of such social sciences research centres. After massive protests from across universities, the UGC extended grants for one year under 31st March 2018. The importance of these centres is much more than what it may seem like. The introduction of these interdisciplinary centres coincided with the institution of backward caste reservations in universities in 2007 and the increase in overall student intake under the Central Education Institutions Reservation and Admission Act 2006. The reservations further diversified student democracy in higher education. The newly formed centres provided the ideological impetus to question caste, patriarchy, mainstream discourses and state repression. This partly explains the mushrooming of student groups such as Justice for Rohit Vemela, Pindra Thore, Pog Kolorov and more. These movements have foregrounded issues of gender and caste in student discourses and politics, have questioned the organising principles and the leadership of existing student outfits and have created an autonomous space and solidarity with students from other central and state universities. The one year extension to the Social Sciences Centre is a temporary solution. At stake is the erosion of a critical research agenda seeking to transform existing discourses and educational institutions in favour of greater equality and representation. These centres encourage in challenging traditional forms of learning and open the minds of students to more critical ways of seeing and knowing, which is the mandate of universities and education at large. Apart from the fund cuts, here are some of the major changes in one of the biggest public funded institutions, Delhi University. If these policy changes in higher education are not recognised as the averse threat they are and not fought against, it might be too late for the country.