KOLKATA: Padma Shri winning academician Sanghamitra Bandopadhyay, also former Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) director, didn’t mince her words when she said that there’s no alternative to hardwork. Speaking at the 19th convocation and valedictory ceremony 2026 of St Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, on Friday, Bandyopadhyay also highlighted how it’s important to keep an open mind, especially in the age of AI and ML. Bandopadhyay, who was felicitated with the Nihil Ultra Award, urged the graduating students to keep entrepreneurship in mind.
The 19th convocation and valedictory ceremony on Friday awarded degrees to 2,465 UG, PG, BEd and PhD students. In fact, this year, 14 scholars were awarded PhD degrees, the highest for the institution. Prof Asutosh Ghosh, V-C, Calcutta University, was the chief guest.
Interestingly, Rev Dr Dominic Savio, Principal, was also awarded for his 25 years of service to the prestigious institution. He mentioned how the college has introduced several courses on AI. A PG course on AI will roll out soon. He also said, in accordance with the NEP 2020, the college has decided to extend exit opportunity to its students at the end of the third year.
The principal also informed how the college has introduced a multidisciplinary course on wetlands ecology, biodiversity and conservation.
In fact, as part of the multidisciplinary research, the college has collaborated with the Tata Medical Centre on conducting research, internships and job opportunities.
“The School of Gender Studies and Social Sciences has been introduced at the college’s rural campus at Raghabpur to empower girl students while raising awareness on gender equality within families and the wider community. 60% of the students at the Raghabpur campus are girls,” he said.