Chandigarh/New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS): Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani Saturday "exhorted" all vice chancellors (VCs) of central universities to ensure prevention of sexual harassment.

Irani said this at a two-day retreat of vice chancellors of central universities in Chandigarh Sep 12-13.

"The minister exhorted all VCs to ensure prevention of sexual harassment of students and staff at all costs," a ministry statement said in New Delhi.

"All central universities should ensure proper facilities and infrastructure for disabled students," the statement said.

Also, the University Grants Commission (UGC) was requested to formulate regulations wherein the students coming out of vocational stream are not discriminated against vis-a-vis those coming out of the general streams.

"Forty great personalities of India would be identified. All universities were requested to locate the schools/colleges/universities which had the proud privilege of teaching these great personalities and take action to develop/improve the facilities and infrastructure in these institutions," the ministry statement said.

It was also said that each central university will display on its website, within a period of one month, all relevant information including the profile of teachers, calendar of activity of university, academic calendar, names of members of all statutory bodies alongwith their tenure, research output, information on budget, vacancy, tenure of registrar and finance officer.

The VCs were requested to encourage the faculty in central universities to offer free online courses to citizens under the Digital India initiative of SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) through the MOOCs (massive open online courses) platform.

They were also requested to ensure that their campuses/constituent colleges become fully wi-fi enabled as soon as possible.