Summary
Father Felix Raj highlighted the crisis during a news conference on Friday which was held to make several announcements.
St Xavier’s University, New Town, will hold an open-house session during its on-campus Christmas gathering in December on the "exodus of students from Bengal", vice-chancellor Father Felix Raj said on Friday.
The vice-chancellor said the crisis of seats remaining vacant in state-aided universities and aided colleges suggests an exodus of students from Bengal.
“The exodus is a matter of concern. There was a time when students were coming to Bengal, especially to Calcutta, to pursue studies at the undergraduate level. Now it is the opposite. Students are going out and students from outside Bengal are not coming in. So, exodus means a lesser number of students in our institutions and our institutions will suffer. Even the state universities, most of the institutions have not filled in their seats," Father Felix Raj told Metro.
“So, we will have to make sure that our institutions also grow and then flourish.”
Explaining the potential factors responsible for the exodus, the vice-chancellor said: “Maybe for the reasons of placement, employment, they are moving out to other cities. But we have to offer placement, and internship within the city and Bengal. That we will have to seriously think about.”
Father Felix Raj highlighted the crisis during a news conference on Friday which was held to make several announcements.
He flagged the concern of exodus which has been bothering Bengal over the years.
This newspaper had reported on July 7, 2016, that Damayanti Mukherjee, the principal of Modern High School for Girls said during a seminar titled "Excellence in Higher Education and Attracting Students in West Bengal" in the presence of former education minister Partha Chatterjee that while the schools hand over student to the universities, they “move out to other states and even other countries”.
That the scenario has not changed a bit could be understood from what the vice-chancellor of St Xavier’s University said on Friday.
This newspaper reported that Jadavpur University and Calcutta University had to hold counselling on their own as several seats remained vacant at the BTech level after counselling held by the JEE board as students prefer NITs for better infrastructure and placement opportunities.
Colleges are struggling with seats remaining vacant across the disciplines and holding counselling repeatedly to fill up the vacant seats.
The state education policy, published in July, said: “While there is excessive student pressure in some select colleges, other colleges are finding it difficult to fill up the allocated seats.”
Father Felix Raj said one of the ways of attracting students would be to raise the scope of employment opportunities.
“We need to focus on investing in industries and start courses that students prefer, like data analytics. We have to start more industries to generate more employment because our students have to be employed in industries. They (the state government) have to think of more investment in industries,” Father Felix Raj said.
The VC also announced that former Union finance minister and Rajya Sabha member P. Chidambaram will deliver a lecture on “The Future of Democracy” at the university on November 25.
The university will hold its convention on February 10.
Last updated on 21 Nov 2023
