Reving higher education in Bengal: Much to unlearn

Updated on: Monday, July 18, 2011

The best students do not stay back in Bengal. Every year at least 20,000 undergraduate students leave for other states. Some get into IIT-Kharagpur, IIM-Joka or the Indian Statistical Institute but it is more by default than design.

Higher education in Bengal, once the envy of other states, is going downhill. 'Brain drain' hardly explains the exodus.

Most meritorious students do not even apply to the degree colleges affiliated to Calcutta University. This year, thousands of students who wish to take up commerce left the state soon after St Xavier's College announced its list of 1,100 for BCom. Most of them had scored 90%-plus in their board exams but their parents just did not want them to study in Bengal. Their choice: Delhi's Shri Ram College of Commerce and Mumbai's Narsee Monji, St Xavier's and Symbiosis.

"Goenka College of Commerce may be good, but it cannot match the teaching quality and infrastructure of colleges in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. The campus is riddled with student politics. Most teachers do not have post-doctoral degrees or publications in foreign journals," said Anubhav Rohtagi, who has got into Symbiosis.

It's more or less the same story in the humanities and science streams, not to speak of technology. In English and economics honours, the brightest do not apply anywhere other than Presidency, St Xavier's and Jadavpur University — which together can take in only 5% of the total applications.

There are many who simultaneously apply to JU and Presidency but St Stephen's, Delhi, is their top choice. At least 1,000 students from top schools like La Martiniere for Boys, La Martiniere for Girls, St James, St Xavier's Collegiate School, Birla High School and Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, have moved to Delhi University or colleges in Mumbai like the Jesus and Mary.

"Apart from JU no other college in Kolkata follows the semester and credit patterns, which are not only more scientific but internationally accepted as well. At St Stephen's, even an undergraduate student is allowed to join hands in research and is given credit for it," said Saloni Meghani, who has got an interview call from St Stephen's.

"A degree from Presidency still has its lustre. But nearly two years after its formation, students are still going to be admitted under Calcutta University norms! No concerted effort is made to arrange campus interviews
after graduation. An archaic mindset is at work here. That has to change," said Rahul Saraogi, who has applied at Presidency for English but will move to Webster University, Thailand.

The city has barely 2,000 seats for 'hot' favourites like biotechnology, microbiology, BBA and journalism and mass communication. In case of technology, those who cannot make it to the IITs, JU and Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu) but are ranked between 2,000 and 8,000 on the WBJEE merit list prefer private engineering colleges down south because tech colleges in Bengal lack infrastructure and do not hold campus placements.

Some educationists say that there is no better example of the decline of the state under the Left Front government than the regression in quality of higher education. "Mediocrity was systematically bred to serve its own needs," was the refrain from academics.

Right from the vice-chancellor of a university to the darwan manning the gates, recruitments were decided largely on party affiliation. While it started surreptitiously in the late '70s, it became rampant by the next decade.

"St Xavier's College was able to wrest itself from the clutches of Red domination, not only because it is privately owned but because it is run by a minority religious institution. It was in line with the Left Front's political agenda regarding minorities," says a senior educationist, who had moved out of Presidency because promotion was denied for years in order to favour a colleague with party connections.

So, what is the way forward? Can Bengal start with a clean slate?

"The new government has quite a bit on its platter when it comes to higher education. In case of Presidency University, the job is relatively easy because according to its statute, every teaching position will be thrown open to competitive applications. But what about the appointments that have already happened? The only saving grace is, perhaps, that hundreds of vacancies exist and these can now be filled with quality teachers, free from political recommendations," says educationist Sunando Sanyal, who heads the newly appointed advisory committee for higher education.

It is vital to depoliticise Bengal's campuses. "You will notice that the best campuses — the IITs, IIMs and ISI — do not allow student politics. That does not mean that there are no student bodies. Representatives to voice students' grievances are elected here, but they do not have party colour. This should be imbibed if discipline is to be rung in. Once this is done, the quality of learning will automatically improve," said Amal Mukhopadhyay, former principal of Presidency College.

Times of India

Reving higher education in Bengal: Much to unlearn

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