UGC warns varsities & colleges to refund admission fees of students

New Delhi: In a major development, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued warning to universities and colleges across the country against retention of original documents of admitted students and non-refund of fees in case an admission is withdrawn within one month.

Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar informed that the higher educational institutions would be penalised with withdrawal of affiliation, deemed status and will be barred from receiving any assistance from the UGC if they fail to follow the directive.

Speaking to media, Javadekar said, "No student will be required to submit any original academic and personal certificate like marksheet and school leaving certificate at the time of submission of admission form. No institution can take any original certificate into their custody. They can only ask for self attested copies of the documents."

"In case a student withdraws the admission 15 days before the notified last date of admission, he or she shall be entitled for a 100 percent refund. Some colleges which deduct a processing fee can not deduct more than 5 per cent paid by the student, subject to a maximum of Rs 5000," he added.

In case a student decides to withdraw within 15 days before the last date of admission, he will be entitled for a 90 per cent refund of the fees and if the withdrawal happens 15 days after the last date, the amount supposed to be refunded will be 80 per cent, he said.

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While the refund amount will be 50 per cent if the admission is withdrawn between 16 to 30 days after the last date of the admission, no refund will be given for admissions withdrawn after the prescribed timeline.

Javadekar further informed, "Many colleges do not return original academic certificates to students when they leave college. So we have made it mandatory that students along with admission form give self attested copies of their academic credentials and colleges will verify them with original. If a student decides to change college, the college will have to return original documents. When final admission takes place migration certificate will remain with college while students will keep other documents with themselves."

[With Agency Inputs]