CU waives application fee, students to get refund – Times of India

Kolkata: Candidates who have paid the application fee at the time of filling up admission forms online before the state government waived off the entire amount will get a refund, principals of colleges affiliated to Calcutta University have said.
Different colleges were charging different amounts as application fee when the process started on August 10. Consequently, the government capped the charge at Rs 150. But after a couple of days, the higher education department issued another order, waiving the entire application charge. The colleges have informed the applicants about the same through their websites.
Since candidates apply for multiple subjects in multiple colleges and have to pay for every application, the initiative will help the students immensely, particularly those from less privileged backgrounds. On an average, a college charges anything between Rs 250 and Rs 400 per application. Some of the private colleges charge Rs 500 and above. “An average student will be saving anything between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500. During this pandemic, this is going to be a huge relief not only for the students but even for their families,” said an official of Calcutta University.
The college authorities who are busy with the online admission process are trying to figure out ways to refund the application fees to the candidates who had paid before the government notification.
“We stopped accepting the application fee from August 13 soon after the government order but a lot of students had already paid the money by then. The amount will be refunded because we cannot be unfair to one section of students. Currently, college authorities are busy with the admission process. Once the admission process is over, we will figure out the way and start the refund process,” said Tapan Kumar Poddar, president of the Calcutta University committee of the All Bengal Principals’ Council.
Subhasis Dutta, principal of Maulana Azad College, said the option of application fee in the college’s portal has been deactivated and a notice has been put up on the website. Scottish Church College will refund the application fees of Rs 300 per application after the entire admission process is over. “The candidates will require to produce the payment receipt for the refund,” said a member of the admission committee of the college.