The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued a warning to universities and colleges against the retention of original documents of admitted students and non-refund of fees in case an admission is withdrawn within one month. As per reports, the higher educational institutions will be penalised with a withdrawal of affiliation and deemed status, and barred from receiving any assistance from the UGC if they fail to follow the directive. According to the notification, the students would not be required to submit any original academic and personal certificates like mark sheets, school leaving certificates, etc., at the time of submission of admission form. In case required, the institution concerned will only ensure verification of the same with the original certificates and these certificates shall be returned to the students immediately. No institution can take any original certificate into their custody. The move is proving to be a huge relief to students at the higher education level. The notification also stated that the institutions will have to refund the fees (the whole or a part of it) in case the student decides to withdraw their name, and can charge only up to Rs 5000 as the procession fees.
Union Minister for Human Resource Development, said “We receive lot complaints every year regarding admissions, so in order to make it easy for the students they will not have to submit any of their original documents before the admission is confirmed. As the merit list changes, and the applicant has full right to switch to a better college.The HRD minister further announced that the students would get a full refund of fees if they withdraw their names 15 days prior to the formally notified last date of admission. Not more than five percent of the fees paid by the student, subject to a maximum of Rs. 5000, will be deducted as processing charges. ” On the name of procession fees, the college sometimes takes a lot of money but from today they cannot do that and hold only 5000 rupees on the name of procession fees,” he added.
The students would get a 90 per cent refund in case they withdraw their name within 15 days before the last date of admission, and 80 per cent within 15 days after the last date of admission. The students would get a 50 per cent refund if they withdraw their names between 16 to 30 days.
The notification will be applicable on Under-Graduate, Post-Graduate and Research Programmes run by universities included under the Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956 and all colleges under their affiliating domain and institutions declared as deemed to be universities under Section 3 of the same act. It will be mandatory for the institutions to have Grievance Redressal Mechanism according to the provisions of the UGC (Grievance Redressal) Regulations, 2012; it should be available on the website too. And, it should ensure that matters are addressed within 30 days.
The institutions failing to comply with regulation will be subjected to strict actions by the UGC including, withdrawal of declaration of fitness to receive grants from UGC, withholding the grants allocated to the institution, declaration of the institution as ineligible to receive any assistance from UGC for general or Special Programmes, recommending to the Central Government for withdrawal of deemed to be university declaration, in case of an institution deemed to be university, etc. (Reported ANI)
