West Bengal has added over 60 new universities in 15 years; several born during covid

Several new West Bengal universities are for women; they are state public or private and several are national such as AIIMS Kalyani and IIIT Kalyani.

Diamond Harbour Women's University

Pritha Roy Choudhury | July 18, 2023 | 04:00 PM IST

NEW DELHI: Over the past decade-and-a-half, West Bengal has added 62 new institutions of higher education.

More than half of these – 37 – are universities and Institutions of National Importance (INI) for general and technical education, set up between 2008 and 2022. The rest are medical colleges, affiliated to the West Bengal University of Health Sciences (WBUHS). These include the centrally-funded ESIC Medical College in Joka, Kolkata.

The 37 include 22 public universities and 12 private ones. Nine of them started operating during the Covid-19 pandemic, over 2020-22, and for the initial period, taught online. Most of them switched over to offline classes in 2022 but are confronted with fresh challenges with teacher recruitment and lack of infrastructure.

The types of institutions to come up run the gamut – from the highly-specialised research centre, National Institute of Biomedical Genomics at Kalyani, to the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Kalyani for technical education; over a dozen new medical colleges, including the centrally-funded All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Kalyani; and numerous universities, some of which are upgraded colleges; some for women and some, set up to address local needs.

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West Bengal University: Born during Covid

Rani Rashmoni Green University came up in 2020 and offered postgraduate programmes in environmental science and chemistry only to begin with. In 2021, also mid-Covid-pandemic, it launched PG programmes in computer science, nutrition and public health, English and Bengali. The first batches were all taught online initially. Each programme has 30 seats and currently, the university has 282 students.

“This is a green university and we are environmentally conscious. We will soon be adding doctoral programmes,” said Ajay Lakra, law officer, at Rani Rashmoni Green University, adding, “at present, we have three departments in Tarakeshwar College and three more departments in Singur government college.” The permanent campus of the university is coming up in Singur.

Alipurduar College was upgraded to Alipurduar University in 2020.

As typical of most new universities, they faced shortage of staff and facilities. Development work continued at Alipurduar during the tumult of the pandemic with “adequate” grants from the state, said Mohendra Nath Roy, its first vice-chancellor. For example, it got Rs. 5 crore and an additional Rs. 70 lakh for modernising a pond for the study of pisciculture. But it needed teachers as well.

“We requested the government that several posts in the university need to be created and many vacancies need to be filled up at the earliest,” he said. During his tenure, which ended on June 8, the university launched 14 PG and eight management programmes. Ten colleges currently affiliated to the North Bengal University will shift to Alipurduar University whose roll-strength is already 12,000.

Biswa Bangla Biswavidyalay came up in 2020 as a liberal arts university and it too began online. It is now operating offline but from rented premises and on the strength of guest teachers.

Situated in Birbhum district, it is also known as Bolpur University and offers master’s programmes in Bengali, English, maths and history. Around 15 colleges of Birbhum district will shift to it from Burdwan University.

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WB: New women’s universities

The new universities to come up since 2008 include two women’s institutions – Diamond Harbour Women’s University in 2013 and Kanyashree University, Krishnanagar, in 2020.

Diamond Harbour Women’s University serves not only women students from every corner of West Bengal but also ones from Assam, Tripura and Odisha. A major draw is the training programmes for various competitive exams the university conducts for its students.

“The students not only do their masters but also get trained for cracking various competitive exams like that of WBCSC or West Bengal Civil Service Commission, railways and also TET [Teacher Eligibility Test]. Before they appear for the actual exam, they appear in a mock exam here and students who do well get scholarships to train at Rice [coaching centre in West Bengal]. So the training is free of cost,” said Sonali Nashkar, assistant professor of history.

Nashkar is also the placement officer at the university.

Sonali Nashkar, assistant professor, History

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The university has requested the state government for grants for expanding the hostels, organise better security facilities and a library. “Though no untoward incident has happened on the campus we are concerned about the security of our students. We also asked the government to provide us with the transport facility that we had before Covid,” said Debashish Mitra, assistant professor, of political science.

Young Universities in West Bengal (2008 – 2023)

Name

Established in

Location

INIs



Indian Institute of Information Technology, Kalyani

2014

Kalyani

All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Kalyani

2019

Kalyani

Research Institute



National Institute of Biomedical Genomics

2009

Kalyani

State public universities



Aliah University

2008

Kolkata

Alipurduar University

2020

Alipurduar

Bankura University

2014

Bankura

Biswa Bangla Biswabidyalay

2020

Bolpur

Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University

2012

Cooch Behar

Dakshin Dinajpur University

2018

Dakshin Dinajpur

Darjeeling Hills University

2021

Darjeeling

Diamond Harbour Women's University

2013

Diamond Harbour

University of Gour Banga

2008

Malda

Harichand Guruchand University

2019

North 24 Parganas

Hindi University

2019

Howrah

Kanyashree University

2020

Krishnanagar

Kazi Nazrul University

2012

Asansol

Mahatma Gandhi University, West Bengal

2020

Mahishadal, Purba Medinipur

Murshidabad University

2020

Murshidabad

Raiganj University

2015

Raiganj

Rani Rashmoni Green University

2020

Tarakeswar

Sadhu Ram Chand Murmu University

2020

Jhargram

Sidho Kanho Birsha University

2010

Purulia

The Sanskrit College and University

2015

Kolkata

West Bengal State University

2008

Barasat

West Bengal University of Teachers' Training, Education Planning and Administration

2015

Kolkata

Private Universities



Adamas University

2014

Barasat

Amity University, Kolkata

2015

New Town

Brainware University

2015

Kolkata

International Management Institute Kolkata

2011

Kolkata

JIS University

2014

Agarpara


Young Universities in West Bengal (2008 – 2023)

Name

Established in

Location

Private Universities






Neotia University

2015

Sarisha

Seacom Skills University

2014

Bolpur

Sister Nivedita University

2017

New Town

St. Xavier's University, Kolkata

2017

Kolkata

Swami Vivekananda University, Barrackpore

2020

Barrackpore

Techno India University

2012

Kolkata

University of Engineering & Management (UEM), Kolkata

2015

New Town

Centrally-funded medical colleges



ESIC Medical College, Kolkata

2013

Joka

State-funded medical colleges



Barasat Government Medical College and Hospital

2022

Barasat

College Of Medicine & JNM Hospital

2009

Kalyani

College of Medicine & Sagore Dutta Hospital

2010

Kolkata

Coochbehar Government Medical College and Hospital

2019

Coochbehar

Diamond Harbour Government Medical College and Hospital

2019

Diamond Harbour

IQ City Medical College

2016

Durgapur

Jagannath Gupta Institute of Medical Sciences and Hospital

2016

Kolkata

Jalpaiguri Government Medical College and Hospital

2022

Jalpaiguri

Malda Medical College and Hospital

2011

Malda

Murshidabad Medical College

2012

Berhampore

Prafulla Chandra Sen Government Medical College and Hospital

2022

Arambagh

Purulia Government Medical College and Hospital

2020

Purulia

Raiganj Government Medical College and Hospital

2019

Raiganj

Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital

2019

Birbhum

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Government Medical College and Hospital

2022

Uluberia

Tamralipta Government Medical College and Hospital

2022

Tamluk

Private medical colleges



Gouri Devi Institute of Medical Sciences and Hospital

2016

Durgapur

ICARE Institute of Medical Sciences and Research

2011

Haldia

IQ City Medical College

2016

Durgapur

Jagannath Gupta Institute of Medical Sciences and Hospital

2016

Kolkata

Santiniketan Medical College

2021

Shantiniketan

Shri Ramkrishna Institute of Medical Sciences and Sanaka Hospital

2015

Durgapur

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