UGC: Educational Institutes Prohibited to keep students' Original Documents
UGC has introduced an elaborate set of rules to protect the rights and interests of students. Institute will not be able to insist upon keeping a student’s original documents.
UGC has introduced an elaborate set of rules to protect the rights and interests of students that will help in controlling coercive and profiteering activities that educational institutes used to indulge in. One of these major rules is that the institute will not be able to insist upon keeping a student’s original academic, personal or other such documents.
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Institutes use to take advantage of the verification and registration process during the admissions and use to submit original mark-sheets, school transfer certificates and other such documents in order to trap the student into taking admission. In order to stop such practices, UGC has prohibited all educational institutes from submitting original copies of student documents.
From now on, institutes will have to physically verify the original documents during the admission process and return them immediately to the student.
Following are the new norms set by UGC:
- According to the new norms, institutes can only store attested copies of the original documents.
- Also, it will not be mandatory for the students to buy the institute's prospectus during the course.
- Institutes will only be allowed to charge advance fees for the semester or year for which the student is about to enroll.
- In case a student chooses to withdraw from the programme after the completion of enrollment, the institute will have to follow a four-tier system for refunding the fees submitted by the student.
- If the withdrawal notice has been submitted by a student 15 days prior to the officially announced last date of admission then no more than 10% of the aggregate fees as processing charges can be deducted from the refundable amount.
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Advanced fee for more than a year has been prohibited because it restricts the options of a student due to the amount of money invested in one institute.