TIRUCHY: In an effort to reduce the gap between the universities and their students seeking support, the Higher Education Department is launching help desks said minister Govi Chezhiaan after launching one such facility at Bharathidasan University on Tuesday.
The facility launched at the university will cater to online grievances, telephone queries and in-person petitions of the students, the minister said.
Chief Minister MK Stalin is very particular on ensuring clear channels of communication between the universities and the student communities and has asked to establish help desks in all educational institutions, the minister said.
This initiative comes in the backdrop of a research scholar making an open complaint to Governor RN Ravi at the Bharathidasan University convocation recently. The student had alleged communication gaps between the university and the students.
The help desk initiative will help students, research scholars, parents and the general public to easily get details of degree programmes, research programmes, and guidelines for admission to higher education courses, said the minister.
The minister inspected the functioning of the help desk after its launch. The help desk was established at the administrative building of the university and this would be managed by a multidisciplinary team of qualified, well-informed persons and facilitators who will coordinate all the information based on individual needs for the benefit of service seekers, the minister said.
Inaugurating the help desk, the minister assured it would address all sorts of grievances of the students and it would be linked to the district grievance cell for further assistance, in future.
Additional Chief Secretary, Higher Education Department Dr K Gopal, Vice-Chairman, Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education MP Vijaya Kumar, District Collector M Pradeep Kumar, Vice-Chancellor R Kalidasan and officials attended the event.
Later, the minister chaired a meeting of higher education stakeholders from the Tiruchy region in which the teaching faculty and students took part.