100 Percent Fee Refund On Cancellation Of Admission 15 Days Before Last Date: UGC

The University Grants Commission (UGC) prohibited the charging of fees in advance for a year or a semester. It also warned institutes against forcing students to buy the institutions’ prospectus.

UGC has issued the guidelines to be followed for fee refund in case of withdrawal of admission. The rule shall be applicable to undergraduate, postgraduate, and research programs run by universities included under Section 2 (f) of UGC Act, together with all colleges under their affiliating domain and institutions declared as Deemed to be Universities under Section 3 of the UGC Act. The guidelines also cover retention of original certificates by Higher Education Institutes at the time of admission. The decision about fee-refund was announced by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar during an interaction with media on October 10, 2018. “Now no student will be required to submit any original academic and personal certificates at the time of submission of admission form and Students’ will get refund of fee from the Institution if they withdraw their admission from the programme,” the minister had said. The guidelines state that Higher Education Institutes can not make it mandatory for students to purchase institutional prospectus. As per the Right to Information Act 2005, and also reiterated by UGC, all HEIs have to disclose institute related information, i.e. course details, affiliation details, intake capacity etc. on its official website. HEIs can not charge fees for any semester/year other than the one in which a student is to engage in academic activities. In case of withdrawal of admission, the following rules will be applicable for refund of fee: 100% fee refund: in case a student decides to withdraw 15 days or more before the formally notified last date of admission. Not more than 5% of the fees paid by the student, subject to a maximum of Rs. 5000, will be deducted as processing charges. 80% fee refund: in case a student decides to withdraw within 15 days or less after the formally notified last date of admission. 50% fee refund: in case a student decides to withdraw between 16 days and 30 days after the formally notified last date of admission. NIL: in case a student decides to withdraw after 30 days of the formally notified last date of admission. HEIs can not ask students to submit original certificates at the time of admission. HEIs shall physically verify the original certificates at the time of admission and return the same immediately. The self-attested certificates of students will be held valid and authentic. In  case, a HEI doubts the authenticity of the certificates they can approach the concerned University or Board which issued the certificate but original certificate can not be retained under any circumstance.