AICTE Warns Technical Institutions on Fee Refund

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi has warned to the all its affiliated institutions and universities offering management and catering programmes may lose its AICTE's approval if they fail to refund fee to students who withdraw their admissions from the course.

The AICTE's regulations 2012 notified a few say back, warns that institutions which do not fulfill the guidelines regarding refund of fee on the cancellation of admissions or delay of refunds shall be liable for disciplinary action.

The AICTE would like to take action on such institutions by withdrawal of approval granted for the programme or the course. Alternatively, the regulatory agency could stop admissions in th course for one academic year or suspend the approval for supernumerary seats. If any, fro an academic year. Besides, the college might be fined up to twice the amount of fees collected per student.

Presently, self-financing colleges and deemed universities rarely refund fees when students withdraw from a course even if they choose to discontinue before the commencement of classed in an academic year.

Many institutions withhold the Transfer Certificate (TC) and academic certificates of the students who wish to discontinue unless they pay the fees fro the entire duration of the course.

An AICTE said, "Such institutions may also attract a penalty of five times th total fees collected per student for each excess admission".

Correspondingly, colleges which do not have a qualified principal / director for more than 18 months might be barred from admitting students for one year.