VTU AND THE MYSTERY OF RS 250 REFUND

                                                                                                                                                                                           Two years after they applied for a revaluation, students get a refund

Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) can be full of surprises. A group of students from the 2015 batch found that they were richer by Rs 250 after VTU paid them back for a revaluation they had requested for, two years ago.

As per the university's exam guidelines, revaluation fee is refunded if a student happens to get at least 15 marks more than what he or she had got before. But this refund has left many wondering why it was happening so late and what the basis for the calculation was. Many of the students don't even remember how much they paid for the process, or for how many subjects.

                                

"I remember I had applied for revaluation of two papers. My marks had changed from 557 to 589 [an increase of 32 marks]. I got Rs 250 this week but I don't remember what papers I wanted remarked and what sum they had charged," a BE computer science graduate told Mirror. The student, who did not want to be named, also seemed clueless as to how the university had arrived on the figure (250).

And, yet, there are some eligible students who have not been refunded yet. They are wondering if they had to apply for a refund at the time of paying the revaluation fee. "I had applied for a revaluation for the Mathematics (Paper 2); I had initially got 28 marks and after revalu-ation, it went up to 52. I guess, I am eligible for a refund because there is an increase of 24 marks.

But I have no idea if there is a refund policy and if I have to apply for it," said another student, who did not want to be identified.

Some of the students Mirror spoke with said they were awaiting clarity on the issue but didn't remember if they had given their bank account details to the university at the time of applying for revaluation.

Meanwhile, those who did get their money back after 2 years are wondering what took so long. VTU finance officer Sapna MA told Bangalore Mirror she had no idea what caused the delay.

"I can only say that the refunding process had to be cleared by the vice-chancellor and the registrar of evaluation. They might know the reason for the two-year delay," Sapna said.

Prof Satish Annigeri, registrar (evaluation) of VTU, was also clueless.

"I have been in this post from a few months only. I have no answer to this question. It is the collective decision of the management. In fact, last week I signed a few papers authorising the release of refund amount for the 2016 batch," Annigeri said.

However, Karisiddappa, who was appointed as VTU vice-chancellor in 2016, said there was a lot of pending paperwork since he took over.