Even though it is now close to a month since the board of governors of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) decided to appoint an ombudsman to hear student grievances, the government sanction for the same has not yet been issued.
This delay has called into question the sincerity of both the university and the government in instituting such a grievance redressal mechanism for all colleges affiliated to the KTU.
The creation of a legal entity to hear student grievances assumes significance against the backdrop of the mounting complaints of students studying in self-financing engineering colleges in the State. The student agitation at the TOMS College of Engineering, Mattakkara, is a case in point. Under pressure from parents and students, the KTU had to issue a memo stopping classes at the college on Monday.
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The KTU’s board of governors on January 11 decided to appoint an ombudsman. The decision came in the wake of the suicide of a student at the Nehru College of Engineering and Research Centre, Thrissur. This decision is in keeping with the AICTE (Establishment of Mechanism for Grievance Redressal) Regulations, 2012.
As per the regulations, a person who has been a judge not below the rank of a district judge or a retired professor having not less than 10 years of teaching experience can be appointed ombudsman. However, this appointment has to be made from a panel of names suggested by a search committee appointed for this purpose. Only after the government clears the proposal of the KTU can a search committee even be constituted.
The AICTE regulations state that the ombudsman shall have the power to hear any grievance of any student against the university or against any college affiliated to it after the student has availed himself of the grievance redressal mechanism in the college concerned.
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This means that the KTU shall have to instruct each college to set up a grievance redressal mechanism on the campus; many colleges have no such mechanism at present. The regulations also mandate that each college set up a registry where an aggrieved student can make an application seeking redressal of grievances.
It is also provided in the regulations that the ombudsman “shall”ensure disposal of every application within one month of its receipt. In case a college “wilfully contravenes” or repeatedly fails to comply with the orders of the ombudsman, the AICTE can initiate a range of punitive measures, including withdrawal of approval to the college and a recommendation to the KTU to withdraw affiliation.