UGC Introduces a New Fee Refund Policy for the Academic Year 2023-2024

In a progressive move, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has made an announcement for a new fee refund policy for the academic year 2023-2024. It is aimed to benefit students who want to migrate from one college or university to another. It is said that a full refund of the fee should be made if the student wants to cancel his admission or wants to migrate from one college or university to another. The college can make a deduction of Rs 1000 to cancel the admission or grant the migration. But the college cannot charge more than Rs 1000 to students. It should be charged as a processing fee. 

There were two major issues faced by students-

1. The Institutions stored the original documents of students at the time of their admission.
2. Candidates who withdrew their admission, they don’t get the required refund at the right time. 

UGC introduced this refund policy to secure the rights of students. It is targeted to reduce the challenges faced by students. UGC has released a strict notification for the colleges and students for the fee refund. Some of the UGC guidelines about the policy are as-

• The college prospectus must include every norm related to UGC for fee refund.
• The college cannot make purchasing of prospectus mandatory. A student can purchase it by his/her choice.
• The college website must include all the details about the college, course, fee, application, etc.
• Institutes can collect fees per semester. They are not allowed to collect the fee in advance for the whole year or course. 
• The institute should be liable to refund the fee within 15 days after the student has submitted a written to the institute. 
• UGC has made it clear that no institute can ask for original documents of students at the time of admission. 
• Students can submit self-attested copies of the documents.
• Institutes can use original documents for verification purposes only.

UGC has also published a Grievance portal where students can file their complaints. It is available at the official website of the UGC and respective colleges. Every institute must have this Grievance portal and all the complaints will be taken care through this.

This move by UGC has been appreciated by students and educationists. It is a progressive step taken by UGC to take care of student’s rights. UGC claims to have made a refund of more than 3 crores to the students. It also claims to have resolved more than 300 complaints registered by the students. 

UGC has adapted its policies according to the needs of students. It is the very supportive step taken by the system to help needy students.

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