Should campus crime reporting by HEIs be a mandatory disclosure?

Hyderabad: Questions come to the fore with the University Grants Commission (UGC) issuing minimum mandatory disclosure by the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), universities and colleges on incorporating several components.

For example, HEIs, universities and colleges don’t include or give partial details of their fee policies, like the fee structure for each course. It includes a fee refund when a student choses to withdraw from a course. Also, details of reimbursement of fee by the State and the Central governments; scholarships under institutionally established endowments and paid internships by the institution, third parties and the like.

In addition, given the changes taking place, should HEIs and university and college websites also incorporate campus crime reporting? It includes incidents of suicides of students, clashes among the campuses, and cases pending against students, besides, details relating to incidents under the

Prevention of Ragging Act, 1997, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013, and the UGC (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2015.

Speaking to The Hans India, Osmania University Vice-Chancellor, Prof D Ravinder, said students and scholars should know details about fee structures of private and public universities to give them an idea to compare and make an informed decision. When it comes to reporting crime, he pointed out that HEIs and universities being knowledge centres, the incidents of crime on campus are negligible.

“Some private universities charge about Rs 3-4 lakh for a liberal arts course. A public university like Osmania collects only less than Rs 10,000,” he added.

States like Telangana have a mechanism of fee regulatory structure. A similar mechanism should be at the national level to ensure regulation and compliance.

Since the UGC has come up with minimum mandatory disclosure regulation, there is hope that the regulation and compliance mechanism will follow at national level.