St Xavier’s University will start BTech in artificial intelligence and machine learning and BSc in statistics with data science so students do not have to leave the state to study new-age courses.

Father Felix Raj, the vice-chancellor of the university in New Town, said on Thursday they are coming up with a new array of courses to stop the flight of students from the state and attract bright students from beyond Bengal.

The BSc course in statistics with data science will be launched in the 2025-26 academic year.

The BTech programme in artificial intelligence and machine learning will be launched in the 2026-27 academic year.

“We can stop the flight of students only by introducing new-age courses. Such courses, apart from arresting the flight of students, will be able to attract students from outside Bengal,” Father Felix Raj told The Telegraph.

“The exodus is a matter of concern. We have to do our bit to stop the exodus.”

In December last year, the university held an open-house session at a Christmas gathering on the campus on the “exodus of students from Bengal”.

The concern of exodus which the vice-chancellor flagged has been bothering Bengal over the years.

Jadavpur University and Calcutta University are forced to hold independent counselling as many seats remain vacant year after year at the BTech level after the centralised counselling held by the JEE board.

The primary reason for the seats remaining vacant is that bright students prefer NITs because they have better infrastructure and offer more placement opportunities than the two universities.

The VC said they would consult retired teachers of IIT Kharagpur to draw the curriculum of the BTech programme.

“The university has a new academic building with 200 classrooms. Xavier Law School with 1,000 students will be shifted to the new building,” he said.

“We will request the state government for land so we can expand.”

The university’s sixth convocation has been scheduled for February 15. It will celebrate its foundation day on February 8.