Outstation Students May Soon Need to a have Local Guardian: Javadekar

Outstation students joining an institute in another city/state may soon have to register a local guardian with the college during the admission process.
Prakash Javadekar, the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister, is in support with this saying that students coming from far-off places need to have a local guardian. In a conversation with HT, Javadekar mentioned that during his colleges days, a local guardian system was followed by the universities for students coming from outside. He said that it was a very good idea and should be brought back.

The decision to make this mandatory will be taken later. Javadekar, however, did not discuss what will happen to the students who do not have a local guardian.

A former VC said that many students come from all corners of the country and do not have a local guardian. In that case, it would be ideal to assign senior tutors to a set of students, which is done at the Cambridge University. He also said that online counselling should be done since students prefer it over a face-to-face conversation.

The ministry has also decided to introduce induction programmes for new students as they come from various sections of society and may need to acclimatise themselves to the college atmosphere and environment.

Javadekar said that many students come from rural areas in central or other universities and a robust plan is required to make them feel at ease. He said that the ministry is adding new suggestions to the recommendations made by the commission. The ministry wants all universities to come up with a system so that there are no more suicides in colleges.