Former Bengal advocate-general Anindya Mitra, an alumnus of the erstwhile Presidency College, said on Friday that the institution’s standard has declined in recent years and has to improve.

Mitra, who has funded a computer centre with 25 desktops and a video-conferencing facility at Presidency University, spoke at the inauguration of the facility.

Mitra, who graduated in history from Presidency College in 1955, said many more former students need to step up to raise the standards of their alma mater.

“I welcome the students and teachers to the inauguration.... I hope it will improve the standard of teaching and learning at Presidency University. I would expect other alumni to come forward with a helping hand to improve the standard of their alma mater,” said Mitra.

He later told Metro: “It is unfortunate that the standard of Presidency has declined. In the various ranking exercises, Presidency’s performance seems to have come down. Presidency as an undergraduate college was recognised as a top institution. So there is a need to improve the standard of Presidency.”

Presidency as a government college secured an A+ rank in 2006 in the NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) assessment. The grade fell to A in the NAAC assessment that Presidency underwent twice since becoming a unitary university in 2011.

In the National Institutional Ranking Framework, an annual exercise carried out by the Union education ministry, Presidency has failed to come up with any performance worth mentioning.

Bivas Chaudhuri, the vice-president of the alumni association, said Mitra’s contribution coincided with the association’s platinum jubilee.

The programme was attended by vice-chancellor Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty and registrar Debajyoti Konar.