ALMA MATER: (From left) Father George Ponodath, Vice-President of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari and Father P.C. Mathew on the St Xavier’s College grounds on Friday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Pursuit of excellence and sharing of opportunity were the key thoughts at the first convocation of the city’s first autonomous college.

The convocation of St Xavier’s College, Calcutta, was held on Friday evening. The chief guest was Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, who had studied in the college from 1952 to 1955.

The ceremony was presided over by Suranjan Das, the pro vice-chancellor of Calcutta University. In his valedictory address, Das congratulated the college on achieving autonomy and expressed the hope that the status would help the college surpass itself in its quest for excellence. But excellence, he pointed out, should not be achieved in isolation.

Ansari was happy being back in his alma mater after years. He pointed out that of the 17,700-odd colleges in the country, only 200 are autonomous and 97 have been identified as “colleges with potential for excellence” by the University Grants Commission. “Of the rest, most do not comply with the minimum infrastructural and academic standards,” he said.

Seventy-eight B.Ed and 30 master’s students of the computer department were awarded degrees on the occasion. Staff members who had been in service for 25 years and 50 years were felicitated.

Hashim Abdul Halim, the Speaker of the state Assembly, and Abdus Sattar, the state minister for minority development, were present on the occasion. Principal P.C. Mathew and rector George Ponodath flanked the chief guest.