Ombudsman for higher education institutions

More news from HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s chamber.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development will put in place a grievance redressal mechanism for students and applicants for admission in higher educational institutions. The framework will be implemented in all central universities, IITs, IIMs, NITS, IIITs, private and government-run deemed universities and all higher educational institutions under various Central government ministries.

Regulatory bodies such as the University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education and National Council for TeacherEducation would ask educational institutions to set up grievance redressal mechanisms.

KAPIL SIBAL: SETTING STANDARDS?

As part of the initiative, each institute would be required to appoint an ombudsman who would be a person with judicial or legal experience. In case the grievance relates to SCs/STs/OBCs or minorities, the ombudsman can co-opt a person of eminence from the weaker section to assist him in taking a decision. 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. “Non-compliance can lead to withdrawal of recognition,” Sibal states.

Applicants for admission and students can apply to the ombudsman for redressal of grievances and s/he would have to give the order within a month. According to Sibal, students have several grievances at the time of applying for admission that needs immediate redressal. Sibal indicated that even the Parliamentary standing committee, in its report on the bill to prohibit and punish unfair practices, had recommended setting up of grievance redressal frameworks.

Soumitra Dutta named new Johnson dean

Soumitra Dutta, a professor of business and technology and founder and faculty director of a new media and technology innovation lab at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, will become the eleventh dean of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University effective July 1, 2012, Cornell President David J. Skorton announced today.

Soumitra Dutta: Scaling new heights

Academics of Indian origin such as Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria, and Chicago Booth Dean Sunil Kumar are scaling the professional ladder in the west. In appointing Dutta, Johnson becomes the first major business school in the United States to hire a dean from a business school outside the country. INSEAD, with campuses in Fontainebleau, France; Singapore, and Abu Dhabi, UAE, is one of the top-ranked graduate business schools worldwide.

Dutta himself has served visiting professorships in Haas School at UC Berkeley, Oxford Internet Institute at University of Oxford, and Judge School at University of Cambridge in England, as well as advised several governments with their national information and innovation policies and consulted with leading international organisations.

“Professor Dutta’s appointment is a natural fit with Johnson’s increasingly global outlook,” said Skorton. “He has expertise in new and emerging media, he has studied the conditions that promote innovation and he has extensive experience on the international stage. Among other qualities, these prepare him well to oversee the education of our next-generation business leaders and entrepreneurs. Johnson students, Cornellians who take courses at Johnson and, in the very near future, aspiring entrepreneurs at our new tech campus in New York City will benefit from this appointment.” Dutta received a B Tech. in electrical engineering and computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MS in business administration, an MS in computer science and a PhD in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.