Pondicherry University forms Covid cell to redress students' grievances

PUDUCHERRY: Pondicherry University has formed a Covid cell as per the guidelines of the University Grants' Commission (UGC) to redress students' grievances related to examination and academic activities in its affiliated institutions.
Ramanujam school of mathematical sciences dean P Dhanavanthan has been appointed as the chairman of the cell with professors A Subramanyam Raju (Umisarc), R Siva Sathya (computer science), A Shahin Sultan (social work) and Victor Ananda Kumar (management studies) as members.
Assistant registrar (examinations) S Murugaiyan will coordinate the committee, said controller of examinations (in-charge) D Lazar. The email id of the committee is puexam.covidcell@gmail.com.
UGC chairman DP Singh in an official communication to vice-chancellors of all universities and principals of all colleges in the country requested them to set up students' grievances cell before May 30. He also suggested the universities and the respective state governments constitute a task force to take proactive measures in a time-bound manner to redress the grievances of the students and stakeholders.
Singh insisted giving wide publicity on the measures taken by the universities and state governments to avoid any communication gap between the students and the higher education institutions/governments.
He said the UGC received emails and phone calls outlining grievances related to academics, examinations, admissions, fees and salary of faculty members et al. The students also submitted representations on the completion of syllabi, technical glitches during online classes, infrastructural constraints, admission processes and collection of compulsory non-refundable deposits et al.
However, parents-students' forums said the UGC communication is evasive on several crucial issues. "The letter is evasive. This is very unfortunate that the apex body is not issuing a clear direction whether to waive or collect tuition fee. It is an evasive communication. This will only add to the confusion," said a representative of a parents-students' forum.