TN HEIs to conduct mandatory safety audit once every three months

CHENNAI: In a bid to protect the safety of the students throughout the year, the higher education department has made it mandatory for all higher educational institutions in Tamil Nadu to conduct a security audit once every three months.

Against the backdrop of assault of a 19-year-old second-year engineering student occurred in the last week of December, 2024 within the Anna university campus, Tamil Nadu government has instructed for the student safety in the premises of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) under the aegis of higher education department and for the safe campus initiative to improve safety, security and transparency in their respective college premises.

A senior official from the higher education department, seeking anonymity, said that the state government has communicated the minutes of the law and order meeting a few months back, in which they have instructed to step up the security in HEIs and mandated campus safety audits.

Stating that the a total of 35 new security audit list was released, the official said that firstly, all the HEIs should ensure that the entire campus enclosed with a compound wall, are the gates monitored, whether the security personnel in the camps were trained, does the institution have sufficient CCTV cameras and whether unsupervised spots within the campus were covered with adequate lighting.

Pointing out that the state government had already communicated the minutes of the law and order meeting, he said all the heads of the institutions were asked to comply with several instructions, including to strictly adhere to the campus security audit as prescribed.

"The principals are instructed to conduct the campus security audit once every three months, which has to be done in coordination with the respective local police stations", he said, adding the audit report shall be uploaded on the respective institutional website without fail.