About 11 public universities of the Odisha state have not yet appointed ombudspersons for the redressal of students' grievances on campuses under UGC (Redressal of Grievances of Students) Regulations 2023. This was published in a public notice by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Thursday, January 18, The New Indian Express reported.
These universities are:
Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) at Rourkela
Utkal University
International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)
Odisha University of Health Sciences
Odisha University of Technology and Research
Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology
Utkal University of Culture, all in Bhubaneswar
Shri Jagannath Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya at Puri
Rajendra University at Balangir
Khallikote University at Berhampur
Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Science and Research at Sambalpur
Despite reminders by the UGC, the institutions are yet to appoint ombudspersons to look into students' complaints regarding irregularities in admission, demands of bribes for admission, violation of reservation policy, non-payment or delay in payment of scholarships, delay in the conduct of examinations, or declaration of results, unfair practices for evaluation of results, complaints of caste discrimination and any type of harassment. In April last year, UGC notified a new set of regulations for the redressal of students' grievances under UGC (Redressal of Grievances of Students) Regulations 2023, applicable to all higher education institutions recognised by it.
Each institution was asked to appoint an ombudsperson, 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 and ombudspersons should have been put up on an institution's website, prospectus, prominent places on campus and notice board.
The UGC had asked all defaulting universities to promptly appoint ombudspersons and implement other provisions of UGC regulations on or before December 31, 2023. It had threatened punishment including publishing the names of the defaulting universities through a public notice and cancellation of the recognition of the institution in case of non-compliance of the regulations. However, as many of them are still defaulting, the commission on Thursday published the names of 256 state universities and of them, 11 were in Odisha. The UGC also published names of private universities in the country that did not comply with the norms and this list included XIM University (formerly Xavier University) in Bhubaneswar.
The Higher Education Department has not yet issued direction to any of the universities in this regard. Officials concerned said they are looking into the issue.
