The West Bengal University of Technology has reminded the authorities of the affiliated private engineering colleges that they must refund fees deposited by students who quit before the start of classes, following a spurt in complaints.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex body for regulating engineering education, had directed the college authorities in 2007 to refund course fees to those who opt out before the first semester after deducting a processing fee of not more than Rs 1,000.
Soon after, the state university had asked affiliated colleges to follow the directive. “Since then, we had been receiving about 50 complaints a year against colleges that did not comply with the AICTE directive. Last year, the number of complaints had shot up to 600. This prompted us to issue a circular to college authorities in late December reminding them of the 2007 directive,” said a university official.
While taking admission to a WBUT college, a student has to deposit a tuition fee of Rs 35,000, a counselling fee of Rs 15,000, an admission fee of Rs 1,000 and other fees.
Every year, several students quit engineering colleges before the start of classes, mostly to pursue other courses.
“If colleges do not refund fees even after getting the circular, we will have to report the violations to the AICTE,” said WBUT vice-chancellor Sabyasachi Sengupta, who is also the chairman of the regional chapter of the council.
“The colleges can conduct counselling again to fill up the vacant seats. But even if they cannot fill up the seats, they have to refund the fees. A student cannot be asked to pay for a course he did not take,” said Sengupta.
A copy of the AICTE directive had been enclosed with the circular, said an official of the inspector of colleges department.
Dhurjati Banerjee, the general secretary of the Association of Professional Academic Institutes, which represents the colleges, said: “We have not heard complaints about colleges not refunding fees. We also have not received any fresh directive from the university about fee refund.”
