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Providing a huge relief to students at the higher education level, the University Grants Commission (UGC) issued a notification which stated that no Higher Education Institution can retain the original certificates of the applicants before the admission is confirmed.
The notification also stated
that the institutions will also 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.
Addressing the press in the national
capital, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar 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"
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 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.
Understanding the perspective of the colleges, the UGC
decided that after 30 days students won't be eligible for a refund. But, the
entire caution money and security deposit, which are not part of the fees
chargeable, shall be refunded in full. The refund of fees shall be made by the
Higher Education Institutions within 15 days of receipt of a written application
from a student.
The notification will be applicable 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.
Javadekar further asserted that the UGC will come out with
regulations soon, "UGC will come out with regulations soon. Hope students will
get justice. This is for college and higher education. If colleges do not follow
the rules then they will be penalised. Private universities also regulated by
UGC."
The institutions can charge the students only for the semester or
year for which they want to engage in academic activities. They cannot charge
the student for the entire programme. There will no compulsion for the
applicants to purchase the institutional prospectus at any time during the
course of the time of the study.
All the institutions will have to
disclose the information regarding the status of the institutions, its
affiliating, accreditation status, physical assets and amenities, course-wise
sanctioned intake of students, various types of fees payable for different
programmes, total fees payable for an entire programme, last date of admission,
details of faculty, members of Governing Bodies and minutes of the meeting of
bodies, etc.. on their website as well as the prospectus.
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 the
aforementioned 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.
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