It will be mandatory for professional colleges in the state to have an ombudsman from the academic year 2012-13, to redress the grievances of students.
His/her jurisdiction will be over grievances related to denial of admission, ignoring merit in admission, non-implementation of applicable regulations for reservations, withholding of documents and original certificates and non-refund of fees in the case of cancellation of admission, or any kind of discrimination and other issues of students of the institution.
At first, it will be the engineering, pharmacy, MBA and MCA colleges that will have the ombudsman as the AICTE will soon issue a notification to this effect to the technical institutions that come under its ambit. But the same requirement has been mandated by the Union ministry of HRD to the UGC, MCI, NCTE and deemed universities.
“Each institute has to appoint an ombudsman with legal experience,” said Prof. S.S. Mantha, chairman, AICTE. “If the college managements find it difficult to find persons with legal experience for each and every college, some colleges, located in a particular area, can come together and constitute a cluster ombudsman,” Prof. Mantha said, adding, “In that case, it should comprise three experts, including a retired High Court judge, an eminent social personality from the education field and an academician.”