COIMBATORE: Every higher education institution in the country will soon be asked to set up a separate online portal for receiving grievances from its students. This has been listed as one of the important criteria in the University Grants Commission’s draft regulation on grievance redressal of students, which will supersede the 2012 regulation.
Once the new regulation, on which the commission has now sought feedback from stake-holders, is published in the Gazette of India, higher education institutions will have to set up online grievance redress portal within three months.
Starting from irregularity in admission process, non-publication of prospectus or furnishing false, misleading information in prospectus, withholding certificates and documents of students, demanding money in excess of what is prescribed in the prospectus, non-payment or delayed payment of scholarship, breach of reservation policy, delay in conducting examination or publishing result, to unfair evaluation practices, students can lodge their complaints about several issues in the portal.
The regulation also envisages formation of four committees to address the students’ grievances at department, institutional, college and university levels. The head of department, pro V-C or dean or senior academician, principal and senior professor will act as the chairperson for the redress committees at department, institutional, college and university level.
The regulation mandates higher education institutions to publish and upload on its website, the prospectus, at least 60 days before commencement of admission process. The prospectus should contain information on list of programmes offered, number of seats approved by statutory authority, conditions of educational qualification and eligibility, process of selection of eligible candidates, each component of fee, details of teaching faculty with their educational qualification, physical and academic infrastructure.
The prospectus should also contain rules and regulation for imposition and collection of any fines specified heads or categories, minimum and maximum fine may be imposed, the draft regulation says.
In case of non-compliance of the regulation, UGC can withdraw 12B status, withhold any grant allotted to the institutions, declare the institution ineligible for consideration for any assistance, inform general public declaring that the institution does not possess the minimum standards for redress of grievance, and recommend for withdrawal of affiliation.
Students Federation of India Tamil Nadu State president AT Kannan suggested that the UGC should activate the existing grievance redress cell and ensure that it functions effectively. Opposing idea of asking institutions to declare fine amount in the prospectus, he said that this is only aimed at helping private institutions.
"We are against imposition of any fine on students. It is the duty of the teacher to correct and guide the students, even if the student commits mistakes, he added. He also demanded the conduct of student union elections as per the Supreme Court order. Students should have a representation in the senate and syndicate of the university, so that they can represent their grievances directly," he suggested.
Committees will have ombudsmen
Students aggrieved by the decision of the grievance redressal committees will also have the option of approaching an ombudsman, who will be a retired V-C or registrar or faculty member having 10 years of experience as professor, and will not be related to that particular university