The Role Of Ombudsman In Higher Education

The secondary roles would include analysing the reasons for grievances and making recommendation for improving the administrative infrastructure and the academic procedures to reduce the frequency of student complaints against the college management. A university ombudsman is immune to the size and political or ideological affiliations of an educational institution. The concept of campus ombudsman is non-political and has been successfully and effectively implemented in the political framework across the globe in dealing with governmental corruption. Despite not having an age long history of campus ombudsman, this is a novel concept adopted by scores of American universities. The fundamental question of concern for the advocates of this office is with regard to its justifiability in higher education institutions.

Resolution of disputes in higher education traditionally follows guidelines promulgated by university

The origins of ombudsman in higher education can be traced to East Montana College where the first ombudsman began functioning in 1966 followed by Michigan State University in 1967. The concept of ombudsman in universities occupied the centre stage with the appointment of Edward Levi as the first student ombudsman in the Chicago University in 1968. Since then the ombuds office has been increasing its presence globally with around 200 universities in the US establishing university ombudsman. It is estimated that there are approximately over 200 hundred universities and colleges in America with ombuds office. Some ombudsman take complaints only from students or faculty//staff while some entertain complaints from students, faculty and staffs. There is an absence of empirical data on ombudsmen in higher education, including basic demographic information on how many there are, who they serve, and where they are