Students coming to study at a university from far-off places may soon need to register a local guardian with the institute as part of their admission process. Human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar has supported the need to have a local guardian for outstation students.
Javadekar said the move is in agreement with the recommendations made by the Roopanwal judicial commission. Roopanwal investigated the suicide case of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula from University of Hyderabad.
“In my college days there used to be a local guardian system for students coming from outside. I think that was a very good system and we must bring it back,” Javadekar told HT.
However, a final decision on whether having a guardian would be made a mandatory for taking admission will be taken later. The minister also didn’t give much information on what would happen to students who don’t have a local guardian.
“There are a number of students who come from far-flung areas and don’t have guardians. So, how will you assign a guardian for them? A better thing would be to assign senior tutors to a group of students, which is done in Cambridge. Also, online counselling should be done as students prefer it since it is not face-to-face,” a former V-C said on the condition of anonymity.
The ministry also decided to introduce induction programmes for new students with an aim to acclimatize them into the college atmosphere.
“In central or other universities people come from rural areas and they need a robust programme to feel at ease. There are other measures such as mentoring by the students which can be adopted. We are adding new suggestions to the recommendations made by the commission. We want all college, universities to come out with a system so that we will see no more suicides on campuses,” the minister said.
An appointment of friendly academic counsellors and the establishment of a grievance redressal cell for socially unprivileged students were also suggested by the Roopanwal panel.
