Those who lost their money in b-schools,can NOW get it BACK!enter to know how

[ankit_ag123]

u ppl have taken a good initiatve this will help a lot off ppl..hats of too u...

[lastknight]

this was printed in today's newspaper...




http://www.aicte.ernet.in/download/comm.doc


PUBLIC NOTICE

Advt. No.AICTE/Legal/04(01)/2007


Sub: Instructions to Technical Institutions, Universities including Deemed to be Universities imparting Technical Education regarding matters concerning charging of fees, refund of fees and other student related issues.

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has been empowered interalia under section 10 (n) of AICTE Act to “take all necessary steps to prevent commercialization of technical education”. In compliance with the provisions under AICTE Act and in the light of directions of Govt. of India issued under section 20 (1) of AICTE Act vide Letter No. (U.1 (A) Section), it has been decided to issue instructions to the Technical institutions, Universities including Deemed to be Universities imparting Technical Education in the matters concerning students.

Whereas it has come to the notice of the AICTE that Technical Institutions and Universities including Deemed to be Universities, are admitting students to technical education programmes long before the actual starting of an academic session; collecting full fee from the admitted students; and, retaining their school/institution’s leaving certificates in the original;

And Whereas, Institutions and Universities are also reportedly confiscating the fee paid if a student fails to join by such dates;

And, Whereas, certificates in original are being detained by institutions and Universities to force retention of admitted students;

And, Whereas the time-limit for students to join the courses/programmes is also being advanced in some cases unrealistically so as to pre-empt students/candidates from exercising other options of joining other institutions of their choice.

In the event of a student/ candidate withdrawing before the starting of the course, the wait listed candidates should be given admissions against the vacant seat. The entire fee collected from the student, after a deduction of the processing fee of not more than Rs.1000/- (Rupees one thousand only) shall be refunded and returned by the Institution/ University to the student/candidate withdrawing from the programme. It would not be permissible for Institutions and Universities to retain the School/Institution Leaving Certificates in original. Should a student leave after joining the course and if the seat consequently falling vacant has been filled by another candidate by the last date of admission, the Institution must return the fee collected with proportionate deductions of monthly fee and proportionate hostel rent, where applicable.

Any violation of instructions issued by the AICTE, shall call for punitive action including withdrawal of approval and recognition of erring institutions and Universities. AICTE shall on its own or on receipt of specific complaints from those affected take all such steps as may be necessary to enforce these directions.
(Dr. K. Narayana Rao)
Member Secretary



looks like someone finally woke up and realised what's been happening...

[ravilakshman]

moved from thread on SCMHRD non refund of fees.

Why single out SCMHRD, when as per the article quoted by some in the thread (reg. Rashmi Bansal, Jam Mag exposing SCMHRDs money making ways) we see that all the other colleges seem to follow in the same footsteps. Thought that having a copy of the article would help.

JAM MAGAZINE ARTICLE

Ethics of MBA Admissions
May we have our refunds, please!

You've deposited over a lakh of rupees for an MBA course. But then you get admission to the B school of your dreams. Be prepared to see your Rs 1 lakh go down the drain - Nilesh Gupta and Rashmi Bansal

Priyank Bhardwaj was very happy when he received a call from Symbiosis (SCMHRD) in Feb 05. He was told to deposit Rs 109,500 immediately. Completing a management degree from a reputed college had been his long cherished dream. And so, with joy in his heart, he deposited the money.

Little did Priyank know that was destined for some thing even bigger; for in the month of April he received an admission call from IIM Ahmedabad. His excitement knew no bounds; he immediately wrote to SCHMRD about his selection in IIMA and the desire to withdraw his candidature from SCHMRD.

SCHMRD paid him a mere Rs 10,000 in the name of refund against the Rs 109,500 that he had deposited. The important thing to note here is that the academic session of SCHMRD was to start only in the month of June - two whole months later.

This is not the story of Priyank alone. Many aspirants face this dilemma every year, as the sorry-no-refund policy prevails across a broad spectrum of management institutes.

Abhishek Roy, a PGP 1 at IIM Ahmedabad had a similar experience with NITIE. He had paid Rs 136, 500 to NITIE in March 2005. When he got an admit letter from IIM A and withdrew from NITIE he lost Rs 50,000.

Gunjan Arora is a first year student of IMT Ghaziabad. He had deposited Rs 55,000 with Fore School of Manangement, New Delhi before getting a call from IMT. Says Gunjan, "I requested Fore both in application and in person to refund my money, if not all at least some amount of it. They kept assuring me for 3 months that they will do something but after that they refused to return anything."

Similar is the story of Puneet Sharma, also studying at IMT Ghaziabad who paid Rs 60,000 to Nirma Institute of Management and later decided to withdraw. “It was clearly mentioned that the amount is non-refundable after a certain deadline date but the course had not started when I asked for my refund. At least the bare minimum 50% should be returned,” feels Puneet

And there are many more such stories

The Money Trap
The problem lies in the fact that there is no one standardised test like GMAT in place. And even if a number of institutes use one screening test –such as the CAT – they choose to follow their own schedule when it comes to admission calls and payment deadlines.

Several institutes finalise their admissions by February end or early March. By finalising their admission early, these institutes leave the students no option but to deposit the hefty fees (to the tune of one lakh) in March itself.

Since the results of various other B- schools (the IIMs, XLRI) are not out by this time, students generally don't take a chance and deposit these fees without delay. To make the plan foolproof, these institutes take a written undertaking from the students that if they withdraw their admission, a substantial amount deposited by them will be forfeited.

For example, the last date to deposit fees at NITIE was March 31st, 2005. Results of IIMs were declared between April 6-11, 2005. Thus anyone desiring to withdraw from NITIE and join an IIM would lose Rs 50,000. However, no MBA aspirant can be sure of getting into an IIM and therefore cannot take the chance of rejecting the NITIE offer.

The institutes themselves lose out on nothing, as the seats vacated by students who move out are immediately filled by others in the wait list. But the plight of the students who leave does not stop here. Now they have to arrange a second set of fees for admission to the b school they are joining.

And finally, there is the dilemma of students on a waiting list. Say you get admission to IIM C or IIM K and pay the fee (Rs 40,000). 10 days later you get into IIM A or B and wish to withdraw the previous acceptance. The money paid once again goes down the drain.

Shobhit Chaturvedi, currently a PGP 1 at IIM A, was originally wait-listed 10 at the institute. So he paid Rs 40,000 to IIM Calcutta to secure his admission there. On shifting to IIM A, he lost that sum.

This issue gains added relevance as the same cycle is about to repeat with the new admissions commencing in a short while.

Some of the comments there make for an interesting read.

"I had to surrender more than Rs 50,000 to SP Jain in 2004. After I got into IIMC I asked the registrar whether I can get a refund… was given part refund and was told that I could have got more refund if I would have informed SPJ as soon as the IIM C results came out . Of course nobody was there to take the call at 5:30pm. Same happened to other friends.
- Manish Sinha, PGP 2, IIM Calcutta

and then the fine print ...

This is a partial list of institutes where the problem appears to be prevalent.

There are responses from the colleges posted, but they do not answer the main question.

[gaurav2cool]

hey puys i had deposited Rs 40000 with ICFAI but it doesnt fall under AICTE
I have emailed and faxed them that i wont b joinin so 2 refund my money i guess it is fallin on deaf ears but after readin 2days newspaper i thght there is stil some hope what should b d next step?????????
sendin them a copy of what was in 2days newspaper???or ???????????

thanks in advance

[cool_elements]

Hi.....but in all of these cases the fees forefeited was very substantial.....
I doubt the same case would be applicable if say for eg..a student ask for a refund of fees from xl to gain entry into iim...coz only 10k+10% of fees is being deducted....

[ram_infy]

This may seem a bit inconsequential but for all the "Ethics" and nonsense that SP Jain talks about, heres one eg which goes to show that it's exactly the opposite...

When I made payment to SPJ's 2-yr PGDM course, I made the payment thru credit card.However, there was some pbm with the web site and the payment was made twice.I wud have made innumerable calls and Emails to SPJain but the only reply I get from the Admissions committee is "We have asked UTI to refund the money and its gonna take time"...I've tried contacting the dean admissions but I'm not able to get thru to him and the lady keeps saying the same thing...It's been more than 4 months since the incident and I'm yet to get the refund..

The pbm for me is that the amt is just 900 bucks and I can't waste my time n money on a PIL which is gonna take ages..So the only option available for me is to put it in forums like PG and hope some "miracle" happens....

It's time SPJ gets its house in order before grilling candidates on questions like "Ethics and Values"

Cheers

[commander]

Yeah the same thing has happend with me last year.
I also got the same reply but did not get any money till now

[manish_bengani]

Originally Posted by gaurav2cool

hey puys i had deposited Rs 40000 with ICFAI but it doesnt fall under AICTE
sendin them a copy of what was in 2days newspaper???or ???????????

Hi gaurav,
I would advise you to first give them a warning saying if you dont pay the money, i would take you to a consumer court!

Even if they donot pay heed, file a PIL in the consumer court, the links to which i have given in my previous 2 posts. AICTE unfortunately wouldn't be able to do anything bcos icfai doesnot come under it subjugation.

ATB!

[lionkiller]

well i think whether an inst. comes under AICTE or not but using this latest notification from AICTE we can very well make some pressure on B-schools and get our money back.
other then this collect some other students from same collage who wants the refund and then move to court . this option is alive now .

[manish_bengani]

lionkiller is right! But even if other students donot come, I would advise u 2 go ahead n take the institute to consumer court....!
believe me, if they don't get petrified on threating, they'll definitely b , once u file a PIL...bcos :-
1) they wouldn't want to spoil their name in media.
2) they don't want to waste time n money .
3) would be afraid of aicte.

thats wat my frnd ho had files a pIL told me....he got his money very soon after the inst. had just received a notification for only a HEARING. bcos if they r duping u of 40-50 K, they would be spending much more than that in the court....not to forget the time!