Vacancies to be filled at Kolkata's Presidency University

All vacancies at the prestigious Presidency University - which has
been accused of falling standards - will be filled up in the next
three months, says West Bengal's new Higher Education Minister Bratya
Basu.

Basu told mediapersons that a mentor group for the varsity would be
set up on the lines of the newly revived Nalanda International
University in Bihar and this would be finalized by next Monday.

"We will form a mentor group on the lines of Nalanda university. I
have to speak to the chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) on this. The
names for the mentor group will be finalized by Monday," Basu said on
Wednesday.

He said the government will start the process for filling up vacancies
in the prestigious university from next week. "All the vacant posts
will be filled up in the next three months."

Last year, the former Left Front government had upgraded the
193-year-old Presidency College into a university.

The institution, with around 2,500 students, still churns out talent,
but there has been lot of criticism about its falling standards due to
politics in teacher recruitment and frequent student unrest.

The college's alumni include Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore,
social reformer Swami Vivekananda, freedom fighter Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose, filmmaker Satyajit Ray, Marxist legend Jyoti Basu,
economist Amartya Sen and scientist Satyendranath Bose.

The country's first president, Rajendra Prasad, and former state chief
minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were also students of the college.
IANS