UGC forms fact-finding committee to examine FM College case
BHUBANESWAR: Hours after the 20-year-old girl student of Fakir Mohan (FM) Autonomous College was declared clinically dead, the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Tuesday formed a fact-finding team to examine the circumstances that led to the incident and assess compliance with the regulatory provisions.
The four-member committee will be led by Raj Kumar Mittal who is a professor at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and a member of UGC. The other members are former commission member of UGC Sushma Yadav, Vice Chancellor of Gujarat University Neerja Gupta and joint secretary of UGC Ashima Mangla.
Secretary of the UGC Sudeep Singh Jain said that following the self-immolation of a female student of the college, allegedly due to harassment by a faculty member, the UGC, as a regulatory body, has decided to form the committee.
The committee will examine the circumstances surrounding the incident, including availability/effectiveness of factors such as institutional policies, grievance redressal mechanisms, anti-harassment measures adopted and student support systems.
Besides, it will check the status of compliance by the FM College to the provisions of UGC (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2015 and other guidelines issued by UGC from time to time.
The committee will specifically examine the institution's compliance to the provision of Regulation 3 of the UGC regulations that stipulates the responsibilities of the higher education institutions in preventing and addressing sexual harassment on campuses.
The panel members will do an on-site assessment to verify the actual implementation of measures adopted by the college for ensuring safety of female students and well-being policies, beyond the documented compliance. They will also meet stakeholders including students, faculty members and support staff to assess the institutional culture, experiences of students and the challenges they face.
The committee will suggest measures for the prevention of such incidents in future. The UGC has asked the committee to submit a detailed report on findings and recommendations to it within a week.