West Bengal assembly passes bill to upgrade status of Presidecy College to university

The famed Presidency College in Kolkata will upgrade to a university if a bill to the effect, the Presidency University Bill 2009, passed by the West Bengal Assembly is implemented. According to analysts, the Left Front government will need to muster all its political skills to fulfill the decades old demand for the institutions' full autonomy.

However, it was celebration time for supporters who have been campaigning long and hard as the bill cleared its first hurdle in the assembly. They see the development as the first step for the hoary institution that traces its history back to 193 years on its way to it regaining its former glory.

Formidable as the institution's claims are to pre-eminence, it can, to boot, also boast of a number of luminairies and personages in diverse fields among its former alumni including Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and even chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

However, it cannot be denied that the near two-century old institution that has been in steady decline over the years, has seen better days.

At one time the college was known for its faculty, acknowledged to be the best in the country. The decline set in during the 1980s when several teachers left the college amid threats of transfer. Around the same time the Bhabatosh Dutta Commission's suggestion of autonomy for Presidency and some other colleges offered some reasons for hope but it never materialised.

Meanwhile, the CPI-M is claiming full credit for successfully piloting the bill and West Bengal higher education minister, Sudarshan Raychaudhari says, "We have done it in a reasonably short and appropriate time."

The opposition, however, says the party's intention is to convert the college into a red bastion and has even appealed to the governor not to ratify the bill.
According to some analysts, the upgraded status of Presidency will only mark the beginning of a roller coaster ride in the institution's quest for academic excellence and regaining its former glory.

They add though it would not be easy to pass the required legislation, the tough part would be to bring about changes that would serve to keep academic considerations in sharp focus to the exclusion of campus politics which has been the bane of many fine institutions of the kind.