‘Pay special attention towards fee refund of aggrieved students: UGC tells colleges, universities

NEW DELHI : The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to refund fee of students who have migrated to other institutes and warned of action otherwise. The commission’s reminder came after it received complaints from students against the universities.

“UGC has been receiving several complaints regarding non-refund of fee against many Higher Educational Institutions (HEls). UGC has requested all the HEls vide mails and reminders to act on the complaints received from the students seeking a refund of fees paid to the Institutes after those students migrated to other Institutions,” the commission said in an official letter.

The commission said that it has issued notifications, guidelines, and letters regarding the refund of fees which are also available on the UGC website, ugc.gov.in. The said notifications are applicable to undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes offered by all universities included under Section 2(t) & I 2(B) of UGC Act, 1956.

UGC also invited the attention of HEIs towards the student grievance redressal regulations as per which define grievance as complaints made by students as “delay in. or denial of the refund of fees due to a student who withdraws admission within the time mentioned in the prospectus subject to guidelines, if any, issued by the commission from time to time.”

The commission asked the universities to abide by the guidelines and pay special attention to fee refund issues. “Non-compliance to the above shall attract punitive action as prescribed under the relevant guidelines/regulations,” UGC further said.