After introducing post-graduate courses in more than half-a-dozen science subjects at Presidency College over the past few years, the state government is set to offer post-graduate courses in two humanities subjects now.

Once the government’s plans of expanding the institution’s post-graduate departments materialise, the college will launch two full-fledged post-graduate courses in English and Bengali.

“The state government has given the college its nod for offering full-fledged post-graduate courses in English and Bengali,” said Presidency College principal Amitava Chatterjee. “We have been informed by the state higher education department that it has sent a letter to Calcutta University, asking it to conduct an inspection of the two departments and check that we have the requisite infrastructure to run the two courses,” he added.

The two new courses at Presidency College will benefit many aspiring students who were deprived of post-graduate studies due to lack of seats in Calcutta University.

If the process of inspections by the university is held as per schedule, Presidency College can start the courses from the 2004-05 academic session. Honours students of English and Bengali, who pass the BA Part II examinations of 2004, will be eligible to join the Presidency College post-graduate courses this year. Once the courses begin, Presidency College will be the first under-graduate institution in the city to offer the highest number of post-graduate courses.

The institution, an affiliate of Calcutta University and controlled directly by the higher education department, runs post-graduate courses in nine subjects, mostly science. The existing post-graduate courses are in physics, chemistry, zoology, physiology, geology, botany, applied economics, geography and Hindi.

According to principal Chatterjee, students even today are admitted to Presidency College for post-graduate courses in English and Bengali. But the college does not enjoy the power to teach the two courses.

As a result, the students are required to attend the classes at Calcutta University. The only benefit these students enjoy is being able to use the Presidency College library.

Once the government’s decision to run full-fledged post-graduate courses in English and Bengali is put in place, Presidency College is endowed with the power to teach the two courses independently.

A senior Calcutta University official said the proposal will be placed before the Syndicate, the highest policy-making body on campus. Once approved by the Syndicate, an inspection team will be set up for examining the infrastructure of the two departments in the college. The final approval will be given after examining the inspection report.