Ads soon for Presi posts

Presidency University will soon advertise for a registrar, deputy registrar, controller of examination and dean of students.

The advertisements seeking applications for the posts will be published in April, vice-chancellor Malabika Sarkar told Metro.

The one-year tenure of the acting registrar, Pradip Sengupta, will end in May, said an official of the university.

Sengupta was appointed last year by the first vice-chancellor of Presidency University, Amita Chatterjee.

Sengupta, the former controller of examination at Jadavpur University, has also been serving as controller of examination at Presidency.

The higher education department recently sanctioned the posts, allowing the authorities to start the recruitment process, said a source.

“The matter will be raised in the university council meeting scheduled for March 22. Once the council okays the appointment, the university will publish the advertisements,” said an official.

Sugata Bose, the chairman of the Presidency mentor group, is expected to attend the meeting.The university has already decided to appoint a dean of students, who will be responsible for ensuring a “free and fair” union election on the College Street campus (picture top) in September.

Governor M.K. Narayanan, the chancellor of Presidency, had insisted on the appointment of a dean of students in the first council meeting of the university on January 5 to prevent unrest on the campus.

The advertisement will also invite applications for the post of dean of students, said an official. “The authorities are currently finalising the required academic qualifications and administrative experience for each post. The university intends to make appointments before the start of the next academic session in July,” added the official.

Presi poll in September

The first students’ union elections of Presidency University will be held in September.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the varsity authorities and students’ union representatives. “The election has been scheduled for September since there is no semester examination then,” vice-chancellor Malabika Sarkar said.

A five-member committee, headed by registrar Pradip Sengupta, will work out the modalities in accordance with the draft rules.

Students will have a vote each for electing the president, vice-president, general secretary and additional general secretary. All girls will also have a vote each for the post of girls’ common room secretary.

Before Presidency became a varsity, constituency representatives of each class would elect the office-bearers but now there would be direct election as in other state universities. “Besides, each voter shall have one vote for election of class representative from his or her class. CRs, in consultation with office-bearers, would elect sectional secretaries,” a varsity official said.

Presi second crack at tutor hire – Pitch for 104 posts with special care for newbie computer science

Presidency University on Tuesday sought applications for 104 posts of assistant professor, including four in the proposed computer science department at the undergraduate level that the authorities want to tend with “special care”.

The posts for which Presidency has issued the advertisement — second since the upgrade to unitary university — were sanctioned by the Mamata Banerjee government in November.

“The new posts are for all 18 existing departments at the undergraduate level — such as mathematics, physics, English and history — as well as the proposed computer science department. The new department will get more teachers in the second phase of recruitment,” vice-chancellor Malabika Sarkar said. “We are focussing on all departments but since the computer science department is new, we will take special care of it,” she stressed.

The setting up of the computer science department has become a must with Presidency having been linked to the National Knowledge Network. The authorities want to design the computer science course in a way that it becomes different from — and better than — the ones other universities offer. Sarkar said she had started talks with experts from renowned universities in India and abroad to decide on the course content.

“We want to lay equal emphasis on theory and technology. If we can initiate the students into the core areas of computer science at the undergraduate level, they would find the subject interesting and may later opt for research in the subject,” the vice-chancellor said.

A Presidency teacher said the computer science course at most institutes tilted towards technology. “If you don’t explain the fundamentals of computer science through theory, students won’t feel encouraged to go for higher studies. Since initiating students into research is our goal, the syllabus will give adequate importance to theory,” the teacher said.

A Presidency official said the last date for sending applications for the advertised posts was February 29.

The university had on January 20 published an advertisement seeking applications for 80 posts of professor and assistant professor. “The recruitment in all three categories will be wrapped up by April,” the official said.

Mamata clears Presidency ‘excellent’ tag proposal

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday cleared the proposal to award special status to Presidency University.

“The proposal that was suggested by the mentor group and Presidency University authorities has been approved by the chief minister. It will now be easy for us to recruit teachers and get best faculty members from across the globe. We can now mention about the special pay package in the advertisement that will soon be published. We are extremely happy that she has responded to our proposal so quickly,” said Sugata Bose, chairman of Presidency University mentor group.

“Funds required for developing infrastructure can be approved later. The immediate requirement was the sanction to publish better emoluments for teachers who will be recruited. We are happy that it can be done now,” he added.

CM wants special status forPresidency University

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday expressed that she was in favour of granting special status to Presidency University. She also announced that five professor chairs at Presidency would be named after five state luminaries.

“We want institutions in West Bengal to do well, and we may as well consider special status for Presidency, and there is need for funds for the institution,” the CM said. Harvard professor and chairman of the mentor committee, Sugato Bose, had called on the CM on Monday evening, and these were part of the discussions, said officials.

Mamata said that a discussion was currently on for Presidency’s proposed special status. She said Jadavpur University had recently got Rs 50 crore from the Centre and even Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU) is demanding Central status, adding that “even Presidency requires money”.

This is in line with the suggestions given by the mentor group. According to a report submitted by the mentor group to the state government, though Presidency is a state university, it should be given a special status, given that it is a “crown jewel” of institutions of higher education in Bengal.

Also, that in addition to the state government’s resources and the university’s own fund generation, a proposal should be sent for substantial capital grant from the Centre. Many radical changes were suggested, saying that a special status would help attract the best academics, who cannot be expected to come to teach at Presidency without a good compensation package.

With the chief minister also feeling the same about the “special status”, the chances of Presidency getting the tag becomes much more easier now.

The CM also announced that following the mentor group’s suggestion, the government was approving the proposal for four chairs of professorship in the names of Jagadish Chandra Bose (on natural sciences), Rabindranath Tagore (on literature and cultural studies), Swami Vivekananda (on philosophy) and Subhas Chandra Bose (on economics, political science and history).

And the state government in addition, had decided on its own to create another chair in the name of poet and revolutionary Nazrul Islam. This had already been passed on to the higher education secretary.

A chair at a university is a professorship – while some professorships are named, either after a founder or donor or a luminary in order to commemorate someone, a named chair is more prestigious than one without a name.

Asked whether the same would be done in other universities, the CM said the state government would decide on these issues once state higher education minister Bratya Basu is back in town.

First results published by Presidency University

KOLKATA: Presidency University turned a new leaf on Monday with the publication of the first semester results. This is the first publication of results since Presidency turned into a varsity.

The day also saw the chairman of Presidency University mentor group, Sugato Bose in a meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee. After the meeting, Bose said: “We discussed the priority areas which need immediate attention. The faculty recruitment and academic infrastructure development tops the list. The chief minister, in due course, will announce her plans for Presidency University.”

“In the first report which was submitted to the chief minister, we had mentioned both the long-term goals and priority areas. We will submit a second report in late January,” added Bose.

Sources confirmed that the chief minister has taken into account the urgency to grant ‘centre for excellence’ status to the varsity before advertisements to recruit faculty gets published in mid-January.

“We had a fruitful discussion. Chief minister in due course of time will announce her plans for Presidency University. We discussed the priority areas which need immediate attention. The faculty recruitment and academic infrastructure development tops the list,” said Bose after emerging from the meeting.

He added, “in the first report which was submitted to the CM, we had mentioned both the long term goals and priority areas. We will submit a second repot in late January and if necessary give more suggestions.”

Presidency University also turned a new leaf on Monday when the results of first semester were published. It was the first time when results were published after Presidency turned into a varsity.

Under the new varsity, majority students fared well with very few backlogs. “Out of the 266 Science faculty students who appeared for the exams, only 26 students have a backpaper. In Arts faculty, 16 out of the 202 students who took the exams are having backpapers,” said controller of examinations Pradip Sengupta.

He added that students could clear the backpaper during their third semester.

The students have been been evaluated only on grades and the pass aggregate has increased from 38% to 40%.

“The first semester programme had begun on August 7 and have concluded on November 21. The examinations were held between November 27 and December 13,” Sengupta said.

Vice chancellor Malabika Sarkar said, “one of the significant achievement of students who have taken the examinations this year is that not only have they scored excellent marks in honours subjects but in the pass papers too. This shows that there was consistency in performance.

This year the minimum pass aggregate has been increased from 38% to 40%.

The university has also launched a website -presi.uni.ac.in