Thiruvananthapuram: The A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technological University has decided to appoint an ombudsman for self-financing colleges in the state to redress students’ complaints of harassment by various colleges.
The governing council of the university on Wednesday decided to appoint a person not below the rank of the district judge as the ombudsman. The students will be allowed to directly give their complaints to ombudsman, who would examine them and find solutions, Pro-Vice-chancellor M. Abdul Rahman told this newspaper. The governing council also decided to send experts from the university to visit all the 155 engineering colleges in the state. The decision on renewing affiliation of colleges for the following year will be taken on the report submitted by the experts, Mr Rahman said.
The AICTE had in 2012 asked all the universities with affiliated technical educational institutions to appoint an ombudsman. However, the APJ technological university which was established in 2014 had failed to do so. The present decision was taken in the wake of the incidents that led to the suicide of Nehru engineering college student Jishnu in Thrissur the other day.
The Admission Supervisory Committee (ASC) headed by Justice R. Rajendra Babu will meet on January 24 to decide on actions against private self-financing colleges where admission irregularities were detected.
