Colleges and Universities to refund the entire fees to students in case of Migration, Cancellation, UGC
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued a notice to colleges and universities regarding the refund of entire fees to the students who are seeking to migrate from one institute to another or have cancelled their admissions up to October 31, 2022. UGC has directed the universities to refund the fees to candidates so as to avoid the financial issues that parents face.
As per the notification, Institutes could lose their eligibility to receive funds from the Commission as well as their university affiliations if they fail to do so.
The notice also mentioned that, if students cancel or withdraw their admissions between November 1 and December 31, 2022 college and university can deduct a processing fee of not more than Rs 1,000 and refund the rest of the collected fees to the student in full.
Due to delay in the result declaration of Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for undergraduate and postgraduate admissions, many anxious students were forced to take admission at private institutes. After the declaration of CUET-UG results on September 16 and CUET-PG results on September 26, some students who are now seeking to migrate to central universities are being forced to pay the penalties by the private institutes in violation of a UGC order.
The official statement issued by UGC reads, “In order to avoid financial hardship being faced by the parents, it has been decided by UGC that full refund of fees should be made by the higher educational institutions on account of all cancellation of admissions/ migration of students, up to October 31, 2022 for the academic session 2022-23 as a special case.
Prof. Jain said that the Commission was prompted to issue the stern warning because of complaints, court cases and RTI applications on the issue.