Summary
Students in the second semester in the four-year BTech course have to compulsorily attend workshop classes, CU official said the 212 first-year students would attend classes at the 6,000sq ft workshop on the technology campus
Calcutta University has shifted the engineering workshop from the Ballygunge campus to the Salt Lake campus for the benefit of BTech students.
Engineering students at CU, whose classes are held on the Salt Lake campus (known as the tech campus), had to travel to Ballygunge science college thrice a week to take lessons in engineering mechanics and drawing in the workshop.
A CU official said the workshop on the Ballygunge campus was dismantled and reinstalled in Salt Lake after students wrote to the authorities detailing the inconveniences they had been facing, including incurring additional expenses, for having to travel from Salt Lake to Ballygunge to attend the workshopclass.
In May, the students had written to the officer on special duty for the tech campus: “The existing workshop building is located quite far from the main campus, resulting in excessive time being lost during commuting and incurring additional expenses for transportation. Understanding the importance of hands-on experience, it is crucial that students have easy access to well-equipped workshop facilities.”
The workshop on the Salt Lake campus was opened on Wednesday, said CU registrar Debasish Das.
“BTech students won’t have to travel to Ballygunge any more to attend the workshop class,” said Ashis Chatterjee, a professor in CU’s statistics department whose tenure as pro-vice-chancellor (academic) of the university ended on Monday.
It was during his tenure that the university initiated steps to shift the workshop.
Students in the second semester in the four-year BTech course have to compulsorily attend workshop classes.
A CU official said the 212 first-year students would attend classes at the 6,000sq ft workshop on the technology campus.
BTech students were required to travel to Ballygunge ever since the university launched the four-year BTech programme in eight disciplines, including computer science and engineering and information technology, in 2015. The workshop on the Ballygunge campus had been developed in 2000 for the students of the four-year BTech course in jute and fibre technology.
As the duration of the other eight engineering courses at CU was three years till 2015, the students did not have to attend workshop classes.
“The journey between Salt Lake and Ballygunge ate into the time allotted for theoretical classes,” a professor of computer science and engineering said.
Last updated on 16 Jun 2023
