Special concessions for Presidency College

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, May 31, 2007
Presidency College, which was on the verge of gaining autonomy, will probably stay under Calcutta University, but they might be given special concessions that are not granted to colleges under the university.
This has been suggested by a 7-member committee formed by the state government. Headed by the vice-chairman of West Bengal Sate Council of Higher Education, Subimal Sen and famous alma mater of Presidency College — Barun Dey, Bhobotosh Dutta, Chittotosh Mukherjee, Bimal Jalan, Pradip Narayan Chattopadhyay and Ashesh Prasad Mitra has submitted the report on May 30 — to the state higher education department.
The focus of the report is on ways to develop the academic quality of Presidency College and turn the college into an ideal institution for turning out meritorious students at much lower fees.
Many pages in the report are dedicated to the issue of autonomy for Presidency College. But, the suggestions are very different from the kind of autonomy granted to colleges by the UGC. The biggest difference is that while, UGC autonomy gives colleges the right to detach themselves from the parent university, Presidency College has been asked to stick to CU.
Unlike other autonomous colleges, it will not frame its own syllabus and neither will it conduct its own exams. The report states that CU is more famous than Presidency College and if the College is de-linked from the university, then it will face hindrances. Instead, the committee wants the government to give certain facilities to Presidency College, which it does not provide, to other government colleges.
The report suggests that if the college wants to churn out meritorious students then the government must not transfer the best professors to other government colleges. Some teaching posts should be created where talented teachers will join and who will never get transferred. “It is because of this transfer policy that many well-known teachers have left Presidency College and joined other universities. We do not want it to happen,” said one of the committee members.
The government is not looking at the governance issue as just another bureaucratic policy. Hence, the idea will be to create an institution of excellence without giving it financial autonomy. “I have not seen the report yet. Let me see what they have suggested. Only then would I make any comments,” said Sudarshan Roychoudhuri, state higher education minister.
The report has suggested that the college be given the privilege to create some professorial posts. The department professors will have the right to invite legendary academicians to join as chair professors. The committee has also suggested that the principal of the college be given the power to let teachers go for seminars and symposiums across the globe and grant them sabbatical leave. Currently, college teachers have to obtain permission from the higher education department, which is a very laborious process.
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