AICTE notice about fee refund and release of original certificates
2017-08-27All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has issued a notice in leading newspapers on 25 August specifying the practice to be adopted mandatorily by technical institutions for refund of fee and release of original certificates to students who withdraw their admissions. The content is produced below.
ALL INDIA COUNCIL FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATION
(A STATUTORY BODY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA)
Nelson Mandela Marg, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi – 110070
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has been empowered interalia under Section 10(n) of AICTE Act to “take all necessary steps to prevent commercialization of technical education”. It has come to the notice of the council that :
a) Some of the AICTE approved Technical Institutions are admitting students to technical education programmes long before the actual starting of an academic session; collecting full fee from the admitted students; and, retaining their school institution’s leaving certificates in original;
b) Some Institutions are also reportedly confiscating the fee paid, if a student fails to join by such dates.
c) Certificates in original are being detained by institutions to force retention of admitted students.
d) The time limit for students to join the courses / programmes is also being advanced in some cases unrealistically so as to pre-empt students / candidates from exercising other options of joining other institutions of their choice.
e) Some of the Institutes are not following the AICTE prescribed pay scale, salary of faculty & staffs are not paid timely.
AICTE REFUND POLICY
In the event of a student/candidate withdrawing before the starting of the course, the entire fee collected from the student, after a deduction of the processing fee of not more than Rs.1,000/- (Rupees One Thousand Only) shall be refunded/returned by the institution. It would not be permissible for institutions to retain the School / Institution Leaving Certificates in original. If a student leaves after joining the course and if the vacated seat is consequently filled by another student by the last date of admission, the institution must refund the fee collected after a deduction of the processing fee of not more than Rs.1,000/- (Rupees One Thousand Only) and proportionate deductions of monthly fee and proportionate hostel rent, where applicable. In case the vacated seat is not filled, the institution should refund the security deposit and return the original documents. Institution should not demand fee for the subsequent years from the students cancelling their admission at any point of time. Fee refund along with the return of Certificates should be completed within 7 days.
PENALTY CLAUSE
Institutions not following guidelines issued by the Council regarding refund of fee on cancellation of admission or delaying refunds shall be liable to any one or more of the following punitive actions by the Council :
1) Fine for non-compliance of refund of fee levied against each case shall be twice the total fee collected per student
2) Suspension of approval for supernumerary seats, if any, for one Academic Year
3) Reduction in “Approved Intake”
4) No admission in one/more courses for one Academic Year
5) Withdrawal of approval for Programme / Course
WHOM TO APPROACH
In exercise of the power conferred upon it under clause 1 of section 23 of the AICTE Act, 1987 (52 of 1987), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has framed the AICTE (Establishment of Mechanism for Grievance Redressal) Regulations, 2012 and has notified those Regulations vide notification F.No. 37-3/Legal/2012 dated 25-05-2012. A copy of the Regulations is available on the AICTE web portal in the section Bureau >> Administration >> Rules & Regulations.
These Regulations provide for
(1) Establishment of a Grievance Redressal Committee in each technical Institution approved by the AICTE; and
(2) Appointment of Ombudsman, by the affiliating Universities for the purpose of redressal of grievance of the students, parents and others.
Accordingly, all AICTE approved Institutions/Affiliating Universities shall comply with the above Regulations. They shall publish detailed information, including name, addresses etc., in their website (public domain), prospectus and Notice Boards for wide publicity.
All aggrieved students, their parents & others may henceforth approach the Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) of the institution in the first instance; and if they are not satisfied with the decision of the committee, they may send their appeal to the “OMBUDSMAN” directly. The “OMBUDSMAN” shall exercise its powers to hear those grievances and ensure its disposal within one month of the receipt of the appeal.
All the AICTE approved institutions and affiliating Universities are directed to comply the above instructions.
Advt. No. PGRC/08(06)/201 Member Secretary, AICTE