Dateline Dhulagarh
It may be a while before the truth about Dhulagarh is unravelled as no responsible government would dare to rock…
The upgradation of Kolkata’s St Xavier’s College to a university is quite the most profound gift to Jesuits on the eve of Christmas. On closer reflection, the award so richly deserved has been a belated recognition… more than a decade after the college was declared an autonomous institution. Hence the anomaly that despite a free hand in the crafting of syllabus and the conduct of examinations, the degree continued to be awarded by Calcutta University.
Happily, that glaring disconnect will be corrected with the next academic session. The Left had made St Xavier’s an autonomous college (2006); it has graduated to a university under the Trinamul Congress dispensation with the passage of the Bill in the West Bengal Assembly on Thursday.
The university tag is recognition too of the sterling contribution of the Jesuits and the Loreto nuns to education in the larger perspective… and untainted by the contagion of political meddling as all too evident in the three other premier universities across the city — Calcutta, Jadavpur, and Presidency. The Governor will appoint the Vice-Chancellor in consultation with the university’s governing board… and markedly without taking the state government (aka ruling party) into confidence.
With the hallowed institution in Park Street now added to the galaxy of talent, it would be no exaggeration to suggest that Kolkata boasts four potential centres of excellence. Nor for that matter will the party in power be in a position to dictate the terms of engagement not least because St Xavier’s University, which will come up at New Town, will be what they call a “self-financing” private entity to promote pedagogy and research in pure science, technology, social sciences, and the humanities.
It will at least initially be a unitary university like Jadavpur and Presidency, but it will have the power to grant affiliation to any college that seeks to come under its umbrella. Going by the provisions of the Bill, it can extend its jurisdiction within the boundaries of the state, in effect to become a constituent university.
Students in general will henceforth have a wider field for post-graduate studies, which regretfully hasn’t taken off as it was expected to at Presidency… now gearing up for its 200th anniversary. It is fervently to be hoped that St Xavier’s University will do justice to the upgrade… and effect the great leap forward. Last Thursday was truly a historic day for the Jesuits of Bengal.
Advertisement
