A majority of the public universities in Odisha are yet to come up with provisions related to student grievance redressal committees on campuses, despite repeated reminders from the University Grant Commission (UGC).
In the view of this, UGC Secretary Manish R Joshi has recently written to vice-chancellors of all the universities to comply with the UGC regulations and also appoint ombudspersons on or before December 31, reported The New Indian Express.
"Since enough opportunities have been provided to the universities, it has been decided to publish the names of defaulting institutions on the website of UGC after December 31, 2023," the UGC letter read.
In April this year, the UGC notified a new set of regulations for the redressal of students' grievances under UGC (Redressal of Grievances of Students) Regulations 2023. Each institution was asked to set up a portal or integrate a link to the student grievance redressal committee (SGRCs) on their websites by July 11 where any student can submit and track a grievance application seeking redressal.
The constitution, existence and functioning of the SGRCs and the names of the committee members should be put up on an institution's website, prospectus and notice board, the guidelines said. UGC also asked the universities to appoint ombudspersons to these SGRCs.
In the state, except Kalahandi, Sambalpur and Gangadhar Meher universities, none of the public universities have complied with these UGC guidelines so far. The three universities have active links where a student can post his or her grievances, added TNIE.
Sources said many universities are yet to put up an active link to the SGRCs on their websites while a few others have just provided information on the committee members. A few of the universities have also appointed ombudspersons to the committees.
Utkal, Rajendra and Vikram Deb universities, for instance, have no content on the student grievance cell link. On the websites of Fakir Mohan, Berhampur, Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo, only the names of GRC members are available.
