Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology has asked its colleges to refund the fees of a student if he/she withdraws before the start of the course.

In a notice sent to the colleges on July 9, the university said the entire fees collected from a student except a processing fee of not more than Rs 1,000 has to be refunded.

At the time of admission, a private engineering college affiliated to the university charges Rs 40,000 as tuition fee, Rs 5,000 as admission fee, and Rs 1,000 as students welfare, sports and games fee. Colleges charge Rs 600 as library and bank fee as well.

The university has received complaints from guardians and students about refund of fees, vice-chancellor Saikat Maitra said. “We want to remind the colleges that they have to abide by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) directive on refund of fees.”

After completion of the three rounds of online counselling by the joint entrance examination board, a student has to visit the college to take admission. They are then asked to pay the entire sum, a university official said.

In the schedule uploaded on the JEE board website, the admission process will close on July 20.

“But before classes start in the first week of August, a student can withdraw... he/she might get through to some NITs by cracking the JEE Main... or he/she might decide against studying at a private engineering college,” the official said. “In such cases, colleges are often accused of harassing students when it comes to refunding fees.”

The higher education department on July 10 extended the admission deadline for undergraduate courses of Calcutta University, West Bengal State University, and Burdwan University to July 25 over seats lying vacant in their colleges.

“An engineering aspirant can decide to withdraw and get admitted to one such college now. So, private engineering college have to refund the fees,” another official said.

Some private colleges even hold back the original school leaving certificates so that students cannot cancel their admissions, he said.

In the July 9 notice, the inspector of colleges of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University, Swapan Kumar Maity, referred to the AICTE directive and said: “It will not be permissible for institutions to retain the school/institution leaving certificates in original in the event of a student withdrawing before the commencement of course.”

Colleges go to any extent to ensure seats don’t go vacant, another official said. Thousands of seats have gone vacant in the past few years but colleges can’t refuse to refund fees on this ground, he said.

Taranjit Singh, the president of the Association of Professional Academic Institutions, which represents self-financed engineering colleges in Bengal, said: “We are not aware of any such allegations regarding the refund of fees. But we will go by whatever the council says.”