Refund Students’ Fees & Certificates: AICTE to Engineering Institutes

Beginning this academic season, all the engineering colleges of the country have been directed to refund the fee amount initially collected from the students in cases where they do not join the programme or when they leave the course midway. Also, they shall not withhold the any candidate’s school or institute leaving certificate and other educational documents.

The instruction has come from the All India Council for Technical Education or AICTE which is the nodal body for regulation of engineering and technology education in the country.

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The step has been taken after a number of parents along with their students lodged complaints in front of the Human Resource Development Ministry with regard to the same.

Detailed instructions laid down by AICTE:

• Refund of fees of applicants if the seat left vacant by them is filled up by another candidate till the end of the admission process. However, a processing fee, only up to Rs. 1,000 can be charged by the institute along with the proportionate monthly rental fee for the hostel.
• Approved technical institutions, under the umbrella of AICTE, can also not retain the educational documents of the students including school/institute leaving certificates.
• If a student withdraws his/her admission before the beginning of the course, the entire fee which is submitted by them should be refunded after a minimal deduction of the processing fee.
• If the seat which is left vacant by the student is not filled, the concerned institute shall return the security amount as well as the original educational documents. In no case shall the institute seek more money from the student to cover up for the fees lost for the next subsequent years.
• The entire process of returning the documents and refunding the fees must be completed within seven days from the date of withdrawal of admission.
• In case an institute is found or reported against violating these pre-set norms, AICTE will have the right to penalize the concerned institute. For example, they may be asked to refund double the fee amount which was submitted by the student first, but whose seat was taken up by another candidate.

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Note that these regulations are applicable to all the engineering institutes of the country (about 3,000) which are registered in the country.