NEW DELHI, Mar 19: The University Grants Commission has recovered nearly ₹ 30 crore from universities across the country, including around ₹ 17 crore from Delhi University, for refund of fees for cancelled or migrated admissions during the 2022-23 academic session, according to chairman M Jagadesh Kumar.
In an interview with news agency, the UGC chief shared the statistics and said the recovered amount is being disbursed to 14,443 students. “A large number of students come from economically weaker backgrounds. They should have the freedom to take admission in a better university, but they may not have the economic means to do so unless they get a refund from the university they had previously taken admission from,” Kumar said.
“We get a large number of complaints from students and based on that we talk to the universities and ensure the amount is refunded. Of course, there are many universities which refund the fees on their own as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, but we have to intervene in case of several universities and hence, an amount of ₹12.14 crore has been refunded to 832 students who took admission in central, state, private or deemed universities,” he added.
The UGC had earlier mandated that full fees, including all charges, should be refunded with zero cancellation charges for cancellations or migrations up to October 31, 2022. After that date and until December 31, 2022, institutions were allowed to deduct no more than ₹ 1,000 as processing fee.