In the beginning of 2012 the former Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal had initiated a debate by mooting the idea for appointment of Ombudsman for higher education institutions under the grievance redressal system. The Ministry passed executive order for the centrally funded institutions which includes central universities, IITs, IIMs and NITs, and deemed universities. As per the order every institution is required to have an ombudsman – a person with judicial or legal experience.
The Ombudsman will have the power to instruct the institution to take corrective measures on complaints of students regarding denial of admission, non-observance of declared merit in admission, with-holding of documents and non-refund of fees in case of withdrawal of admission. Few months back former Minister of state for HRD, D. Purandeswari in Rajya Sabha answering to the question of appointment of Ombudsman has stated that, “University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education and National Council for Teacher Education have been requested to establish a grievance redressal mechanism for students and applicants for admission in higher educational institutions under their regulatory control. This mechanism includes appointment of Ombudsman also for redressal of students’ grievances.”
Though, the order was passed by the Ministry it is still to get Parliament approval and thus has not been implemented on ground. India Education Review discussed the issue with some of the heads of institutions on the need for an Ombudsman and his role.
Need for an Ombudsman: The need for an Ombudsman is being felt for the higher education system in India is because of its tremendous growth in terms of number of institutions just to increase the gross enrolment ratio. In doing this we forgot about quality, relevance and excellence and this lead to massive commercialisation of education which has lead to a scenario in which anybody with money can buy degrees while those with talent and qualification have to run from one institution to other to get admission.
Prof. PB Sharma, Vice Chancellor, Delhi Technological University talking to India Education Review said, “The purpose of education is not merely to award the degrees but to create an army of capable men and women who shall possess besides capabilities, human values for development of the society. This noble objective requires that the institutions and universities should be established and managed by people of letters and of high moral and ethical wisdom. It is expected of them to desist from any deviation from ethical and moral foundation of education, no matter how compelling the circumstances or situations may be, but we find the just opposite in most cases.”
“Institutions and universities especially under the disguise of public-private partnership or under private ownership have been allowed to be set-up by those who could muster financial and political support. This has created the present unhealthy and unfair environment in higher education in the country. We all know very well that once we allow the rot to set in, it creates an environment for mediocrity to flourish. We can have an Ombudsman provided we are able to specify the domains and duties to the Ombudsman for his exercise of controls, even preventive measures to stop the growth of mediocrity and establishment of sub-standard institutions,” added Prof. Sharma.
There are many government run institutions that are against the idea of appointment of Ombudsman over themselves as they feel that they have very transparent system and they feel that it is needed in case of private institutions. They also feel that central government of any of its agencies will not be able to frame rules and guidelines for it as different institutions have their own issues, history and serving different segment of society.
Dr. MM Salunkhe, Vice Chancellor, Central University of Rajasthan is of the view that, “the topic has not been debated properly and there is need to debate upon it in detail as it is a very wide topic. As far as government run universities are concerned, particularly the central universities we follow a very transparent system at each and every step. Ombudsman is required for private institutions as they flout and twist the norms. The other problem is who will make the rules and define the role of Ombudsman because every university is different and unique in itself and what rule will be good mine will not be good for some other universities. Thus, I am not very much in favour of this post for the universities until the role of Ombudsman is clearly defined.”
Whom to appoint? There is also huge debate on the topic that who should appointed to this post as a section of educationist feel that the person to be appointed for the post should be from education fraternity as any outsider will not have the understanding of the huge education system that India has. While the other section feels that the person should be from judicial background as he would be less biased with least vested interest. The concern of both the section is genuine and but the ministry has chosen the second option to appoint a person with judicial or legal background. The institute would have to appoint him from a panel suggested by the affiliating university in case of technical and management institutions and the Central Government in case of deemed universities.
According to Prof. PB Sharma “The man of iron will with the highest credentials of scholarship, administrative capabilities, a vision and commitment to build quality higher education for his motherland. He should also understand that it has not mere teaching or coaching that makes higher education, rather an environment in which education, creative and innovative abilities and opportunities to recognize the value and worth of knowledge and capabilities, technology and knowledge incubation, innovations and new-product development are nurtured is that what should make higher education of today and surely of tomorrow.”
“The tenure of an Ombudsman should be of five years to give him a reasonable time frame to implement the reforms or changes as envisaged. Such an Ombudsman be invariably be appointed by a coliseum comprising of a former Chief Justice of India, an Outstanding present or former Vice Chancellor, an outstanding Civil Servant and an outstanding industrialist,” Prof. Sharma added further.
Prof. R. Lalthanluanga, Vice Chancellor, Mizoram University, is of the view that, “as far as ombudsman is concerned, I do not think that there is any need for government run higher educational institutions like central universities etc. which are self regulated through its ordinances/regulations as per the guidelines of UGC (University Grants Commission) or MHRD. It may be required for private institutions as they do not have very clearly defined regulation. UGC may appoint Ombudsman for such institutions for a period of three years.”
It seems that the Ombudsman is the need of the hour for the vast education system that India has and with arrival of foreign institutions it is even more required. It will only make the Indian institutions rise up to the occasion. The checks and balances and fine tuning can be done by the institutions at their own level along with following the guidelines of MHRD. Ombudsman is seen as a system for grievance redressal of the students while there are provisions in the already existing system it can be further strengthened to make it more transparent. People against this move also feel that one redressal system will lead to another making it a vicious cycle.
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