Former IAS officer Madhav Godbole to head Savitribai Phule Pune University’s student grievance committee
As per the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations, it is mandatory for every university to have a full-fledged grievance redressal committee in place and SPPU has been struggling to establish the same.
Madhav Godbole, retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, will head the student grievance redressal committee (GRC) at the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), according to varsity officials. This is the first time that the university has revamped the grievance redressal procedure to make it more effective and transparent.
As per the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations, it is mandatory for every university to have a full-fledged grievance redressal committee in place and SPPU has been struggling to establish the same.
A varsity official, on terms of anonymity, said that the previous procedure forced students to reach out to the registrar or the vice-chancellor. This often led to delays and students had to repeatedly follow-up on their complaints.
According to the official, the new system will streamline the process and provide speedy assistance to students.
“The vision behind establishing this cell is to have a more transparent and effective way of dealing with the issues that students face within the campus. While we already had a procedure for grievance redressal, a lack of a designated committee looking into the issue often delayed the process. This move has been taken keeping in mind the benefit of the students,” said Arvind Shaligram, SPPU registrar.
The new cell will address issues like, exam related queries and complaints, irregularities in the timetable, delayed results and harassment by professors among others. Students will be able to submit an application online as well as offline. The first meeting under the committee was held on April 27 and 28.
The committee will have Godbole as the head. Shaligram; Deepak B Mane, head of the department of physical educatio; Ranjesh Pande, management council member; and Devidas Waydande, professor at the university, are the other members in the committee.