New Delhi, April 20 -- A University Grants Commission (UGC) fact-finding committee probing the death of a 19-year-old student at a government college in Himachal Pradesh's Dharamshala has flagged "serious institutional failures", including absence of statutory bodies and lack of student support systems, according to its findings. The panel found the student was "disowned by stakeholders", and the college principal Rakesh Pathania came to know about the incident through social media with no outreach even after a police complaint, according to the findings submitted to UGC in the last week of March. HT has seen a copy of the panel's submission to the commission. UGC had on January 3 constituted a five-member fact-finding committee to verify college's compliance to its regulatory norms on students safety and examine the circumstances surrounding the death of the student on December 26. Based on a complaint filed by the victim's father, three students of the college were booked on charges of ragging while a teacher was booked for sexual harassment on January 1. On February 17, a Dharamshala court granted anticipatory bail to all three of them. The UGC panel visited the college between January 1 and 8 and held detailed discussions with college administration, teachers, students, family of the victim and police officers in the hill state. The panel found that the victim was admitted in 2024-25 batch and had completed one year in the college. In October 2025, her father complained that she was "bullied and ragged". The committee noted that the matter was "not followed up" by police or college. "Government Degree College Dharamshala is affiliated to Himachal Pradesh University (HPU), Shimla and lacks a mechanism to ensure students safety in line with UGC norms and guidelines," a UGC panel member told HT. In its report, the committee noted that key bodies of the college such as the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and anti-ragging mechanisms were either "not formed as per norms" or "non-functional in true sense". The report also flagged gaps such as lack of CCTV coverage, no action after the police complaint, and delayed institutional response....