Vacant varsity seats: Partha expresses disappointment

Kolkata: State Education minister Partha Chatterjee on Friday expressed disappointment over vacant seats at some universities including Presidency University and made it clear that the government is bent on finding a solution to the problem.

"I have sought reports from all universities on the amount of vacant seats. The government provides grant to all educational institutions, then why should so many seats remain vacant? This will not be accepted. All of us have to come together and find a solution," Chatterjee said.

In case of Presidency University, the minister will himself speak with the university authorities as 50 percent of the seats are lying vacant. The principal secretary of Higher Education department has already spoken with the university authorities in this regard. "I have been looking into the seat vacancies of colleges but now university seats are not being filled up. Who decides the standard of merit? I have to look into it," the minister said making it clear that the government wants to ensure that not a single meritorious student is deprived of higher education.

Interestingly, it has been found that a good number of students who have graduated from Presidency University have refused to pursue Post Graduation at Presidency. The university has already sent a report to the Higher Education department stating the reasons why so many seats are lying vacant. The Education department is not too sure whether this problem can be addressed this year as classes have already begun in full swing at Presidency..

According to sources in Presidency University, in graduation 34 seats out of 50 in Chemistry is lying vacant, in Physics 30 out of 48 seats have not been filled up.

"The Ramkrishna Mission Narendapur is planning to increase seats due to huge demand while here so many seats are lying vacant," an official in the Higher Education department said.