NEW DELHI: With many varsities not providing even basic information about their institution on their websites, the UGC will direct them to not only give updates about the admission process and fee structure but also the student support services, internal complaint committee and anti-ragging helpline.
Speaking with this paper, the University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof M Jagadesh Kumar said that they have found that the websites of several universities lack not only in providing the minimum information related to their university but also, at times, their websites are not functional and out of date.
This causes a lot of inconveniences and uncertainty to the stakeholders, he said, adding, “At this defining moment when we are celebrating the third year of National Education Policy 2020, it would be prudent to request the Universities to provide basic minimum information and updated content on their website.”
He said the directive would also help different stakeholders like prospective students, parents, research scholars, government officials, alumni and the public at large who desire to seek certain basic information from the websites of different universities.
Kumar said the UGC would be sharing a checklist with all the varsities about the information that needs to be displayed on their official websites. These minimum mandatory disclosures would also include the varsity institutional development plan, annual reports, accreditation, details of officials with photographs, academic programmes, departments and fee refund policy. The varsity must also upload information about its research and development cell, publications, patents, foreign and industry collaborations and Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs).
The varieties must also display details on student support services like hostel facilities, fellowships/scholarships, Academic Bank of Credits, Digi Locker NAD Portal and National Scholarship Portal. They will also need to upload on their websites information on e-Samadhaan, which monitors and resolves all grievances of students and staff members in varsities, student grievance redressal committee, details of ombudsperson, internal quality assurance cell, internal complaint committee and anti-ragging cell with helpline number and equal opportunity cell and socio-economically disadvantaged group cell (SEDG). The website will also need to upload information on alumni associations, alumni coordination cells, RTI details, circulars, notices, announcements, newsletters, news, pictures and even recent events and achievements.
