Several principals of government and government-aided colleges have urged the new Calcutta University vice-chancellor, Ashutosh Ghosh, to restore their autonomy in running postgraduate programmes.
Among the colleges making this demand are Lady Brabourne College and Asutosh College. Ghosh has said he will look into the demands.
Restoration demand
College heads said that Calcutta University’s 2018 decision to take complete control of postgraduate exams and syllabi has weakened academic standards. Before that year, colleges had full authority over their PG programmes: they designed their own syllabi through their boards of studies, set their own question papers, and appointed evaluators they deemed academically fit.
“This has diluted the academic standards of our postgraduate education,” said Siuli Sarkar, principal of Lady Brabourne College. “We are not satisfied with the quality of the common syllabus. We are also not happy with the way students are being evaluated. This has hampered the performance of our students. The colleges must be returned their autonomy to run postgraduate courses.”
Asutosh College principal Manas Kabi shared the concern. If colleges cannot plan and innovate at the postgraduate level, “it would be difficult to run the programmes,” he said.
A principal of another government-aided college, requesting anonymity, said: “A college can think of innovative programmes at the master’s level attracting bright students when it has autonomy.”
Sarkar of Lady Brabourne College, accompanied by a few teachers, met VC Ghosh last week to press for the restoration of PG autonomy.
When Calcutta University introduced PG programmes in colleges in the early 2000s it allowed colleges to run the programmes independently.
Sarkar described how Lady Brabourne previously engaged experts such as Sobhanlal Dattagupta, chair professor of political science at CU, to design the political science syllabus. In physics, they relied on academics like Amitabha Raychaudhuri to incorporate contemporary topics.
“Our curriculum benefited students,” Sarkar said. “Ever since the autonomy was taken back, everything is now decided by the university. The colleges do not have any participation — be it in setting the curriculum or questions or in the evaluation.”
If autonomy is restored, Lady Brabourne hopes to introduce modules on artificial intelligence and machine learning, and contemporary human rights issues in political science. “Autonomy lets you introduce programmes in sync with the times. At the postgraduate level, there has to be an element of autonomy,” Sarkar said.
Kabi said students were leaving Asutosh College at the master’s level. “The university must think of restoring the autonomy,” he said.
Autonomous institutes
Several institutions under Calcutta University already function autonomously, notably the three Ramakrishna Mission colleges and St Xavier’s College, Park Street. They independently run undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and have introduced new courses in response to emerging academic and industry demands.
Ramakrishna Mission Residential College (Autonomous), Narendrapur, introduced an MSc in artificial intelligence last year. St Xavier’s College began a course in ecology conservation and wetlands protection.
This year, Behala College also became autonomous following a NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) recommendation and is running its PG programmes independently.
University’s concerns
According to Calcutta University, autonomy was withdrawn because a section of colleges misused the freedom. CU registrar Debasis Das said some colleges manipulated evaluations so their students scored exceptionally high marks, and admitted students beyond sanctioned strength.
“This forced the university to scrap the autonomy and bring it under the control of the university entirely,” registrar Das said.
Allegations of irregularities in invigilation further prompted the university this year to require PG students from colleges to write exams at common facilities under CU-appointed invigilators.
VC meeting
When Sarkar met VC Ghosh last week, he asked whether Lady Brabourne intended to apply for full autonomous status like other institutions. Sarkar replied that as a government college, Lady Brabourne did not wish to become fully autonomous — it simply wanted academic autonomy restored at the master’s level within the existing structure.
VC Ghosh told Metro: “There are colleges like Lady Brabourne which believe in exercising their autonomy fairly. But then there are colleges that abuse the autonomy. The university is aware of the situation and is trying to address the concerns.”