Virtual problem-solving: Web-Wise All engg and mgmt colleges have been directed to set up online grievance cells

Virtual problem-solving

Web-Wise All engg and mgmt colleges have been directed to set up online grievance cells so students issues and complaints can be address faster better

Are your results delayed, your fee refund not in yet or your revaluation stuck in limbo? If you’re an engineering or management student, you can soon take your complaints online and be guaranteed a quick response — a bit of news that has made a lot of students really happy.

The AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), acting on directions from the union ministry of human resource development, recently made it mandatory for all affiliated institutions to create a tab on their websites where students could post grievances and have them addressed.

Each institute will have to constitute a grievance committee to monitor the tab.

If your issue is not addressed within a fortnight, you can appeal to the university concerned and eventually to the AICTE itself.

The institutes will also need to submit monthly status reports on how many grievances were logged online, how many disposed of and how many are still pending.

The performance of the grievance cell overseeing this online initiative will eventually be taken into account while granting approvals and accreditation.

“Students often have valid complaints, but some are addressed, some delayed and others not addressed at all. We were flooded with mails both on our portal and the government’s Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System. So the government decided that all grievances should be addressed in a timebound manner. This will ensure transparency and students will be benefitted. Students will feel confident and good institutes will get better branding,” Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education.

“First, we want to bring in transparency. We have to test its efficacy. We will also see if students are misusing the mechanismAre your results delayed, your fee refund not in yet or your revaluation stuck in limbo? If you’re an engineering or management student, you can soon take your complaints online and be guaranteed a quick response — a bit of news that has made a lot of students really happy.

The AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), acting on directions from the union ministry of human resource development, recently made it mandatory for all affiliated institutions to create a tab on their websites where students could post grievances and have them addressed.

Each institute will have to constitute a grievance committee to monitor the tab.

If your issue is not addressed within a fortnight, you can appeal to the university concerned and eventually to the AICTE itself.

The institutes will also need to submit monthly status reports on how many grievances were logged online, how many disposed of and how many are still pending.

The performance of the grievance cell overseeing this online initiative will eventually be taken into account while granting approvals and accreditation.

“Students often have valid complaints, but some are addressed, some delayed and others not addressed at all. We were flooded with mails both on our portal and the government’s Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System. So the government decided that all grievances should be addressed in a timebound manner. This will ensure transparency and students will be benefitted. Students will feel confident and good institutes will get better branding,” Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education.

“First, we want to bring in transparency. We have to test its efficacy. We will also see if students are misusing the mechanism to trouble strict colleges. Thereafter, we will connect it to approval and accreditation of the institute,” he adds.

HOW IT WILL WORK

For students like Chetan Gangwani, 19, a second-year computer engineering student at Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, Bandra, the announcement offers hope.

“I have a revaluation request pending and I have to keep going to the university to check its status,” he says. “With an online portal, I could get updates faster and more easily.”

An online portal for grievance redressal will help maintain transparency in the system, adds GT Thampi, principal of Thadomal Shahani. “Since everything will be online, the institutes will be forced to look into a matter quickly and provide proper redress.

“TSEC has an offline committee in place which will now have more members to monitor the online portal that we will launch soon.”

J Nair, principal of the VES Institute of Technology in Chembur, says this institute has a huge student population and an online system will help address issues in less time.

“We usually get complaints such as delays in getting railway concession and unavailability of some faculty, which the dean of student affairs receives and responds to,” says Nair.“the online grievance facility will make it possible for him to step in only when really necessary. The rest can be handled by our cell online.”

She points out that anonymity will also be guaranteed in an online system.

“For complaints such as nonimplementation of a university circular or discrimination, this will be the best solution,” Nair adds.

Nationwide implementation, though, remains a question mark.

The AICTE had previously notified grievance regulations in 2012, which defined the need for the appointment of an ombudsman and prescribed penalties for violation. Experts say the 2017 directive itself implies that several institutes have violated those regulations.

Sahasrabuddhe promises the system will work.

“Complaints registered on the portal will have to be addressed by the institute in not more than 15 days,” he says. “We will expect compliance reports from each institute every month.” to trouble strict colleges. Thereafter, we will connect it to approval and accreditation of the institute,” he adds.

HOW IT WILL WORK

For students like Chetan Gangwani, 19, a second-year computer engineering student at Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, Bandra, the announcement offers hope.

“I have a revaluation request pending and I have to keep going to the university to check its status,” he says. “With an online portal, I could get updates faster and more easily.”

An online portal for grievance redressal will help maintain transparency in the system, adds GT Thampi, principal of Thadomal Shahani. “Since everything will be online, the institutes will be forced to look into a matter quickly and provide proper redress.

“TSEC has an offline committee in place which will now have more members to monitor the online portal that we will launch soon.”

J Nair, principal of the VES Institute of Technology in Chembur, says this institute has a huge student population and an online system will help address issues in less time.

“We usually get complaints such as delays in getting railway concession and unavailability of some faculty, which the dean of student affairs receives and responds to,” says Nair.“the online grievance facility will make it possible for him to step in only when really necessary. The rest can be handled by our cell online.”

She points out that anonymity will also be guaranteed in an online system.

“For complaints such as nonimplementation of a university circular or discrimination, this will be the best solution,” Nair adds.

Nationwide implementation, though, remains a question mark.

The AICTE had previously notified grievance regulations in 2012, which defined the need for the appointment of an ombudsman and prescribed penalties for violation. Experts say the 2017 directive itself implies that several institutes have violated those regulations.

Sahasrabuddhe promises the system will work.

“Complaints registered on the portal will have to be addressed by the institute in not more than 15 days,” he says. “We will expect compliance reports from each institute every month.”

Source | Hindustan Times | 22 March 2017

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Rizvi Institute of Management