Institutions Will Face Punitive Action For Refusing To Refund Fee To Students: UGC

New Delhi: Universities and higher education institutions will have to face punitive action if they fail to adhere to the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) policies on fee refund and non-retention of original certificates as notified on August 2. The UGC has issued a letter to this effect.

The decision was taken after the delay in JEE Main, CUET, and JEE Advanced exams which further caused delays in admissions. Hence, to avoid the financial issues that parents face, the UGC has directed the universities to refund the fees to candidates, News18 reported.

Notably, in August, UGC announced the fee refund policy 2022-23 wherein the educational institutions are required to return the entire fee, including all charges, on account of cancellations of admissions and migration of students. In its notification, UGC had asked institutions to refund full fees on account of cancellation of admissions or migration of students up to October 31.

UGC also made it clear that the entire fee should be refunded and that there should be “zero cancellation charges”. It stated that even in case of cancellation/withdrawal of admissions up to December 31, 2022, the entire fee be refunded after deducting not more than Rs 1,000 as processing fee.

An official statement issued by UGC mentioned, “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 Octiber 31, 2022 for the academic session 2022-23 as a special case. It is made clear that the entire fee, including all charges, should be refunded on account of cancellation/ migration up to October 31, 2022. Thereafter, on cancellation/withdrawal of admissions up to December 31, 2022, the entire fee collected from a student will be refunded in full after deduction of not more than Rs 1,000 as Processing fee.”