Amartya Sen

The Presidency mentor group will take up infrastructure upgrade and ways to retain faculty at its two-day meeting starting Monday at the College Street institution.

Harvard professor Sugata Bose, the chairperson of the group, said he would talk to Amartya Sen on these and other issues related to efforts to turn the university into a world-class institution.

Sen, the adviser to the chair of the mentor group, would visit the campus on Monday to deliver the Dipak Banerjee Memorial Lecture. Bose said he would talk to Sen after the lecture and before the start of the mentor group meeting.

Faculty retention has assumed significance at the fledgling university as six teachers have left the institution over the past three months after being offered a better pay by central institutes. Bose told Metro that the Presidency authorities were not bothered by “stray cases of departure” but stressed the need for infrastructure upgrade so teachers get ideal research opportunities.

“I don’t think there is anything to worry about as yet. We have recruited around 159 teachers. Of them only a few have left. But we think teachers need to be provided exciting research ambience so that they feel encouraged to give their hundred per cent,” said Bose.

Bose added that infrastructure upgrade was crucial as the authorities wanted to convert Presidency into a “world class institute” by 2017, the bi-centenary year of the institution.

The mentor group would discuss where the funds would come from for the infrastructure revamp. The cash-strapped state government has recently made it clear that it could only provide Rs 6 crore against the mentors’ plea for Rs 50 crore for the renovation of the crumbling Baker Building, where world-class laboratories are set to come up.

“We are exploring ways to raise funds through alternative means,” said Bose.