Autonomy at last

Updated on: Thursday, June 24, 2010

Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandir, the college at Belur Math, has finally been granted autonomy.

The decision on setting the college free from the CU framework was taken a while back was communicated to the college by the University Grants Commission only on June 21.

“We have been granted autonomy to frame our own syllabi and examination system. Thus, we can now revamp and update the syllabi of the different subjects as required. Even examinations will be conducted by the college without any delay,” said Swami Tyagarupananda, officiating principal of the college.

At present, the college offers undergraduate courses in 13 subjects and postgraduate courses in Mathematics, Sanskrit and Bengali. “We are now trying to include applied chemistry too in our postgraduate courses,” added the principal. There are 579 students studying in the college. “With autonomy, we will now have more flexibility in framing the curriculum. We will also introduce more subjects at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels,” said Swami Tyagarupananda.

Way back in 2007, the syndicate (highest decision-making body) of Calcutta University had cleared the autonomy proposal of both Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission and Belur Shikshan Mandir. After St Xavier’s College and these two, RKM Vidyamandir is the fourth college under CU to receive partial autonomy.

“We had forwarded a recommendation to UGC for their autonomy. From their admission process to handling of courses, education for undergraduates in the college will now be autonomous. The college performed very well even in co-curricular activities. So, they got an excellent status from us. The points were calculated and recommendations sent. The UGC team that visited the college corroborated CU’s views. Accordingly, on Monday, they received a formal notification from UGC,” said CU’s pro vice chancellor (academics), Dhruvajyoti Chattopadhyay. There will be representatives from CU in each committee to be formed by RKM Vidyamandir.

Autonomy at last

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