The teachers of the IIEST, Shibpur, have expressed their anguish in a letter to the institute’s director over the “derailment of a once thriving institution” after the alumni shared their concerns over the decline in national rank.
The IIEST Teachers Association, taking note of the institute’s persistent decline in an annual ranking exercise carried out by the education ministry, has written to IIEST director Parthasarathi Chakrabarti: “An administration that cannot maintain even the basic infrastructure of an age-old institution, cannot schematize a proper and adequate division of labour and resources, apparently lacks both vision and control.”
The teachers have written it was sad that the IIEST that had held 17th position among the engineering category across the country in 2018 when the present director took charge has slipped to 40th position this year.
“The downside was already in the air. We suspect that even you had a feeling and also knew the plethora of reasons behind this fall. When you took charge of this age-old engineering institution, it was holding a position of 17th in the NIRF list and was thriving to move up the ladder of national ranking,” says the letter, signed by Tapendu Mandal, the secretary of the teachers’ association and a teacher in the metallurgy department.
“However, the saddest part is that the conglomerate called authority which yields and wields power didn’t care,” the letter stated.
The erstwhile Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU) was renamed the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur by the central government in March 2014.
“It is a matter of regret that the institute finds itself on a descending curve. A consistent fall in a national ranking will come in the way of attracting bright students,” Mandal, who graduated from BESU in 2004 told The Telegraph.
The Global Alumni Association of IIEST, Shibpur, last month started gathering feedback from former students on ways to improve the institute’s standards.
A former student, who is based in the US, has started an online sign campaign with the alumni, regarding the persistent slide.
Flagging concerns over infrastructure, the teachers have written: “The institute could not even start any new infrastructure project to escalate the potential of the campus”.
Talks have been going on about building a hostel that could accommodate 1,000 students over the past few years, but the work is far from over.
Calls and text messages to director Chakrabarti went unanswered.
The teachers have given some suggestions like “implementation of decentralisation of administrative authority, without fear or favour, should be restored and opening up of regular and seamless channel of communication between the academia and administrative functionaries”.
