Edu-leaders

Union Minister for Human Resource Development has directed all higher educational institutions to establish Grievance Redressal mechanisms to address problems related with students and applicants in a time bound format.

In this connection, UGC, AICTE and NCTE are all set to request all Central Educational Institutions, institutions deemed to be universities, technical and management institutions under AICTE and teacher education institutions under NCTE, to establish such mechanism as soon as possible.

According to government plan, each institution would be required to constitute an Ombudsman (person with judicial or legal experience to be appointed from a panel) suggested by the affiliating university for technical and management institutions, while the Central Government in case of deemed universities and the regulator for non-degree granting institutions.

The aim behind the proposal is to ensure the redressal of grievances of students within a month time. The Ombudsman shall have the jurisdiction to hear grievances concerning denial of admission, non-observance of declared merit in admission, non-observance of applicable regulations for reservation, with-holding of documents and non refund of fee in case of withdrawal of admission, discrimination and other such matters concerning students in pursuit of studies in the institution.

HRD has also made it cleared that in case of matters concerning weaker sections such as SCs/STs/OBCs or minorities, the Ombudsman can co-opt a person of eminence from the area coming from the weaker section to assist him/her in arriving at a decision.