Behala College was formally conferred autonomous status for 10 years by Calcutta University on Monday.

The university issued a letter to the college announcing the conferment — a recognition that will allow the college to independently run its course curriculum, free from the university’s control.

“...University of Calcutta is hereby pleased to confer the status of an autonomous college under this university in favour of Behala College...for a period of 10 years from the academic year 2025-26 to 2034-2035 as per clause 7.5 of the UGC....,” stated the letter signed by registrar Debasis Das, that was addressed to the principal, Sharmila Mitra.

After 10 years, the status will come for renewal that is a mere formality.

The university, in its syndicate meeting held on July 22, decided to grant the
status autonomous status after the UGC on July 2 recommended autonomy for Behala College and asked CU to complete the formalities within 30 days.

But until CU, the affiliating university did not issue a formal letter of conferment to an affiliated college, Behala College could not operate as an autonomous college.

“The letter has been issued. Now the college is free to start its journey as an autonomous college,” said registrar Das.

Mitra, who went to CU’s College Street campus to collect the letter of conferment, said they would run the postgraduate courses in nine subjects independently from this year.

“The college will introduce postgraduate courses in five subjects — English, cybersecurity and digital forensics, geo-informatics, applied microbiology and data science and analytics — from August. The college had been running PG courses in four subjects — chemistry, mathematics, Bengali and history — over the past few years. Since being accorded autonomous status, the college will now run postgraduate courses independently in all nine subjects,” she told Metro.

A college official said they would soon come up with a notification announcing the admission schedule.

“The college will soon issue newspaper advertisements announcing the college’s status and the new courses that it has to offer,” said Falguny Mukhopadhyay, the president of the college governing body.

The college also plans to introduce the three-year undergraduate law programme, the principal said.