AICTE Urges Colleges to Introduce Online Grievance Redressal

The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has directed all its affiliated colleges to set up a grievance redressal mechanisms in place for students. It has been made mandatory for all colleges to have an online platform where students can put up their grievances regarding fee refund, re-evaluation, delay in results, etc.

AICTE has also asked the colleges to make the details of the grievance committee members public. Institutes will have to provide their names, contact numbers and e-mail IDs both online and on the notice board to assure the students that they will get help.

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The institutes will also be required to submit an online monthly status report indicating the number of grievances received, resolved and the ones still pending up to the last day of the previous month.

The decision was made by the Union HRD Ministry two weeks ago. Also, while granting approvals during accreditation, AICTE will evaluate the effectiveness of an institute in dealing with ­grievances. The council has also clarified that having an online portal for grievance is mandatory, regardless of whether the institute in question wishes to get accredited or not.

Grievance redressal is expected to be linked to approval for an institution in the near future. Experts say that the initiative will be very helpful for students as they will be in direct touch with the institute regarding all their issues. This will also introduce transparency within the education system.

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A dedicated system for addressing grievances will enable the college to manage student issues effectively. It will also be able to monitor if students are misusing the services. This will also replace the inefficient systems for resolving student issues. More satisfactory methods will be introduced to help students.