Maharashtra students elections: Pro-VCs of 11 universities meet, to submit programme plan before July 31

Once elected, student representatives will have a greater say in the functioning of higher educational institutions, including issues dealing with syllabus and fee hike. The president and secretary of the University Students Council are ex-officio members of the senate, and the president is an invited member to the management council.

At the meeting on Wednesday, officials of the universities were apprised of several key points in the statutes, published in the gazette on October 26, 2018. A workshop was also conducted on June 10. While the date of the election at each university may be different, the election will be conducted in a university and its affiliated colleges at the same time.

“Since most colleges finish their admission process by August 15, the elections are likely to be held in the second or third week of September. We want the elections to be transparent, apolitical and have introduced a strict code of conduct in this regard,” said Anand Mapuskar, member of the state government’s uniform statutes committee.

From these elections, there will be direct voting at the college level to appoint class representative, president, secretary, women’s representative and reservation representative. At the university level, voting will be indirect and the process will be conducted at each individual college.

A polling officer will be sent to each college, where the president, secretary, women’s representative and reservation representative will cast their vote.

After each college finishes its counting process and announces results the same day, elected members will be a part of the University Students Association and will vote for the university student council elections. At the college level, the principal will be the final authority.

The process will be conducted through ballot and the student candidates should not be affiliated to any NGO, political party or outfit.