Annual Report 2 o o 7- 2008 ■% S k DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL ANNUAL REPORT OF THE I DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION % 2007-2008 DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL 2008 ■■5WSSSS"- JSi ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATllN^097-2008 June, 2008 © Government of West Bengal ^ ^ Educational P l a r ^ _______——* Edited & Published by Shri Prasadranjan Ray, Additional Chief Seretary Department of Higher Education Government of West Bengal Bikash Bhavan, Salt Lake City Kolkata - 700 091 Printed at Hooghly Printing Co, Ltd. (A Govt. Company) 41, Chowringhee Road, Kolkata-700 071. ■■ i FOREWORD The presentt volume of the Annual Report of the Department of Higher Education presents the status of higher education in the State of West Bengal during the year 2007-2008 and describes in particular, the activities of the department and also the various organizations and institutions attached to the Department of Higher Education. A remarkable feature of our higher education system is the balanced approach in expanding the opportunities of higher studies in liberal arts, humanities, social and basic sciences, commerce and in interdisciplinary areas along with the study in science and technology. That our efforts are definitely bearing fruits is reflected in the fact that the number of research publications per faculty in most of these disciplines in our universities compares very well by all India standard. A very large percentage of the research scholars now working in prestigious scientific establishments of our country are young graduates or postgraduates from our universities. With a view to open up new opportunities to our aspiring young generation, to increase Gross Enrolment Ratio and to reduce gender disparity, the Government has set up 22 new general degree colleges during this financial year. These new colleges under pay packet scheme offer education in basic sciences and humanities mainly in socially and economically backward areas of West Bengal. Two new universities, namely West Bengal State University (Barasat) and Gour Banga University at Maldah have recently been established to cater to the increasing demand for higher education in the semi-urban as well as rural areas of our State. The W.B. College Service Commission Act has been amended in order to enhance effectiveness of the Commission. The W.B. Council of Higher Education Act has also been amended to give the Council further autonomy. Another area to which the State Government attaches importance is the improvement in the quality of Distance and Open education. All the universities are taking special care to conform to the standards set by the Distance Education Council for designing course materials and conducting the courses. During the year 2007-08, three engineering and technological colleges offering various engineering and technology courses have been established on self-financing basis bringing the total number of such colleges to 64 with an approved intake of about 17000. One of the major problems in the field of engineering education in the country is the shortage of good quality teachers as well engineers in core branches like civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical etc. To address the problems the government and the state universities are trying their best to adopt various means like opening up new opportunities for the in-service teachers to upgrade their academic qualifications and insisting on the authorities of the existing as well as upcoming private engineering colleges to open courses in these core branches, in addition to IT related courses. The State Govt, is conscious of the increasing cost of education. Effective measures are being taken to ensure that the students coming from the weaker section of the society are not denied access to higher education institutions only due to financial constraints. Apart from various existing scholarship schemes like National Scholarship, National Merit Scholarship, DPI Special Stipend and Hindi Scholarship, a new “Merit cum Means scholarship” scheme has been started from 2006-07. I hope that this report would help the readers in assessing the higher education scenario of our state, our achievements and shortcomings. Dated: 29th June, 2008 Bikash Bhawan, (Sudarsan Raychaudhuri) Salt Lake, Kolkata - 700 091 Minister- in- charge Higher Education Department PREFACE This annual report highlights the major activities of the Higher Education Department in the State of West Bengal during the financial year 2007-08. The data available in this compilation would be of use to students, academicians and planners. The base of Higher Education facilities in the State of West Bengal has expanded considerably in the past few years. There has been a steady growth in the number of institutions and in student enrolment in Colleges and Universities. New institutions have come up in several backward regions, thus improving the accessibility of the Higher Education system to the students. Stress has also been laid among quality upgradation and accordingly new posts of academic and non-academic personnel have been created and appropriate training programmes have been taken up. Eleven engineering institutions of the State received assistances under the World Bank supported Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) and they have performed well acquiring new equipment, promoting staff development and improving networking of the institutions as also promoting accountability to the community. While TEQIP programme is coming to an end by March, 2009, a second phase of the programme is being planned and it is expected that other technical institutions of the State will also receive benefits from the programme. Qualitative and quantitative expansion of the Higher Education system continues to be our goal and attempts are being made to ensure equity in the educational institutions by bridging the existing social and economic decides in the society. It is expected that these initiative would start yielding results shortly and this would be reflected in the improved participation from backward communities and backward regions. My colleagues in the Higher Education Department have put in a lot of efforts to put out this edocatton in time. We know that some errors and mistakes might still have crept in and would like to apologize in advance. The Higher Education Department will be grateful for comments and suggestions to improve the quality of this oducatieftT Dated :.the 27th June, 2008 (P. Ray) Bikash Bhawan, Additional Chief Secretary to the Salt Lake, Kolkata - 700 091. Government of West CONTENTS FOREWORD PREFACE (V) CHAPTER - 1 : HIGHER EDUCATION IN WEST BENGAL AT A GLANCE 1 CHAPTER - 2 : ADMINISTRATIVE SET-UP OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 11 2.1 Introduction 13 2.2 Administrative set up 13 2.3 Functionaries in the Department of Higher Education 16 2.4 Universities and other important Organisations/Institutions 24 attached to the Deptt. of Higher Education CHAPTER - 3 MAIN ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS DURING THE YEAR 33 3.1 Introduction 35 3.2 Policies 35 3.3 Budget of the Higher Education Department 36 3.4 Proposal for extension of affiliation to new subjects in 40 Non-Govt, general degree colleges 3.5 Post Graduate courses in General Degree Colleges 50 3.6 Technical education 52 3.7 University education 53 3.8 Non-Government colleges 54 3.9 Government colleges 57 3.10 Measures for quality improvement of Higher Education 57 3.11 Scholarship and Stipend 58 CHAPTER - 4 : ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT EDUCATION 65 4.1 Engineering and Technology Education 67 4.2 Management Education 107 CHAPTER- 5 : UNIVERSITIES 115 5.1 General Information 117 5.2 Calcutta University 122 5.3 Jadavpur University 134 5.4 Rabindra Bharati University 146 5.5 Burdwan University 154 5.6 Kalyani University 169 5.7 North Bengal University 177 5.8 Vidyasagar University 187 5.9 Netaji Subhas Open University 196 5.10 West Bengal University of Technology 200 5.11 Bengal Engineering & Science University 213 5.12 West Bengal State University (Barasat) 219 5.13 Gour Banga University 219 5.14 U. G. C. Recommendation for the 10th Plan 219 CHAPTER - 6 : OTHER UNIVERSITIES 221 6.1 Other State Aided Universities in West Bengal 223 6.2 Central Universities in West Bengal 232 6.3 Institutes of Importance 238 CHAPTER - 7 : COLLEGES 255 7.1 General Information on Govt, and Non-Govt. Colleges 257 7.2 Games and Sports in Colleges 264 7.3 Hostel Facilities in Colleges 264 7.4 Some Salient Features of Colleges 268 CHAPTER- 8: PROFESSIONAL COURSES 273 8.1 Teachers’ Training 276 8.2 Physical Education 285 8.3 Law Education 290 8.4 Computer Education 292 8.5 Art Education 293 8.6 Music 295 8.7 Language Courses 296 CHAPTER - 9 : ACTIVITIES OF THE WINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT, ACADEMIES 299 AND ORGANISATIONS 9.1 Institut de Chandernagore' 301 9.2 Institute of English 303 9.3 Joint Entrance Examination Board 306 9.4 Netaji Institute for Asian Studies 307 9.5 National Service Sclieme (NSS) 309 9.6 Paschim Banga Hindi Academy 313 9.7 West Bengal District Gazetteers 314 9.8 West Bengal State Archives 315 9.9 West Bengal State Book Board 317 9.10 West Bengal State Council of Higher Education 319 9.11 West Bengal College Service Commission (WBCSC) 321 9.12 Day Students’ Homes 323 CHAPTER-10 : RESEARCH INSTITUTES AND AUTONOMOUS VOLUNTARY 327 ORGANISATIONS ASSISTED BY THE STATE GOVT. 10.1 Bankim Bhaban Gabesana Kendra 329 10.2 Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta 334 10.3 Jagadis Bose National Science