Calcutta, Sept. 18: Seven colleges under Calcutta University (CU) are running a course on defence studies without any full-time teacher.

According to guidelines recently issued by the University Grants Commission to the West Bengal College Service Commission (WBCSC), a full-time teacher of any subject should have passed the National Eligibility Test (NET) or the State-level Eligibility Test (SLET) or done a PhD.

There being no course on defence studies at the honours or post-graduate level in the state, students here are unable to take the NET, SLET or pursue a PhD.

Consequently, defence studies is the only subject being taught by CU without any full-time teacher.

Sources said the colleges were recruiting retired commissioned officers of the armed forces as part-time teachers to run the course.

CU had introduced a subject called junior military science in the early sixties at the undergraduate level in the pass course. In 1979, the Left Front government redefined the subject as defence studies.

Maulana Azad College and Behala College are among the institutions in the city which are running the course.

The other colleges are Sushil Kar College at Champahati, Sri Chaitannya College of Habra, Jiagunj College in Murshidabad, S.R. Lahiri College at Majdia in Nadia and Nahata Jogendranath Mandal Mahavidyalaya in North 24 Parganas. None of these colleges has full-time teachers.

Chandidas Mukherjee, teacher-in-charge of Maulana Azad College, said the college authorities were finding it difficult to teach the subject in the absence of full-time teachers.

?We were planning to discontinue the course at the undergraduate level for this reason. But students have requested us not to withdraw the course,? said Mukherjee.

WBCSC chairman Ajit Banik conceded that the commission had not recruited any teacher on defence studies during the past five years.

?In fact, it is very difficult for us to recruit a teacher on the subject after the UGC issued the guidelines,? Banik said.