Work for RBU's third chapter begins in New Town, to have hostel facilities for foreign students
Kolkata: Rabindra Bharati University (RBU) has begun work for setting up its third campus at New Town. The new campus will have hostel facilities for foreign students which has been a major challenge for the varsity that accounts for the highest number of foreign students in eastern India. The present strength of foreigners pursuing various courses at the varsity is 186 out of a total student strength of 6,175.
"The social sector of the state Public Works Department (PWD) has started the construction work for our new campus with a state-of-the-art hostel facilities on 7.96 acre land that was handed over to us by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee through the West Bengal Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation in New Town's Action Area II," said Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, Vice-Chancellor of RBU on the sidelines of the 44th Convocation of the varsity on Wednesday.
A large number of students from the SAARC countries including China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh take up courses like Arts, Visual Arts and Fine Arts in RBU.
There are also students from the USA and other European countries pursuing courses at the varsity.
"These students have to stay as paying guests in different parts of the city. We are concerned about their safety and security but as we have no hostel facilities, we can do nothing once they go out of the campus. The new hostel will also have kitchen facilities so that these students can cook food of their own choice," a senior university official said.
He added that the foreign students often face a lot of problems with food as the places where they put up as paying guests serve normal Bengali food on a regular basis that do not satiate their taste buds.
The university also has plans to shift some courses from its existing campus at Jorasanko and BT Road to a new administrative building that will come up at its new campus in New Town.
As per the plans, the new campus will be a green one with a refurbished guest house, an auditorium, a modern gym and facilities for a number of indoor games. RBU conferred D. Litt on noted author Sanjib Chattopadhyay, noted classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, and tabla maestro Swapan Chaudhuri at its Convocation. 99 students were given their Phd degrees while medals and endowments were given to 138 students.
