The government on Thursday issued an order mandating the formation of a student grievance redressal cell in all colleges and teaching departments in universities within a month. Appellate committees will also come up in each university.
The move comes in the wake of the alleged suicide of a second-year student in a hostel of the Amal Jyothi College of Engineering in Kanjirappally and the resulting protests that rocked the campus recently.
The college Principal or the head of the department (in the case of university departments) will be the chairperson of the proposed committee. The panel will include two teachers, including a woman, who are nominated by the chairperson. It will also comprise the chairperson of the college union or departmental students union and two elected student representatives, including a woman.
The college Principal or the department head will nominate a differently abled student as well as a student from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The cell will also have a parent-teacher association (PTA) representative as well as a teacher who has been nominated by the respective university Syndicate as its representative.
While student representatives, nominated teachers and the PTA representative will have one-year term, the university representative shall have a term of two years. Besides, the university representative must be a teacher from outside the institution.
The order also mandates that the election of student representatives to the grievance redressal cell be held along with the college union elections. Incumbent student representatives will continue in the cell until his/her successor is chosen.
The chairperson of the cell will be required to convene meetings whenever the need arose. The official can also call for meetings if at least six members of the body submit written requests. Seven members are required to constitute the quorum of the meeting. A convener can be elected by the members of the cell. The chairperson will have the legal responsibility of implementing the majority decisions that have been adopted by the cell.
While the names and contact details of all the members will be published on the website of the respective institution, complaints received and the subsequent decisions taken in each case will be informed to the university by a special officer entrusted with the task.
The cell shall be empowered to deal with complaints relating to admissions, examinations, withholding or denying certificates or other documents, charging fees for services in excess of the declared rates, inadequacies in infrastructure facilities, discrimination on the basis of religion, caste, gender, disabilities, etc. and mental or physical harassment by college authorities, teachers, students or other staff members. Failure to provide classes in accordance with the norms laid down by the university laws will also come under the ambit of the cell.
A university-level appellate committee that will be chaired by the Pro Vice-Chancellor can take up appeals against the decisions of the cell. The committee will have the Dean or Director of Student Affairs as its convener. The other members will include a syndicate representative, a syndicate student representative, the chairperson of the university union, three teachers including a woman and another member from the SCs, STs who have been nominated by the syndicate, and a university official not less than the rank of an Assistant Registrar.
Higher Education Minister R. Bindu said institutions that fail to implement the order will face stringent measures, including withdrawal of its affiliation, suspension of government grants and a freeze on course recognition.
