'Not A Single V-C From 40 Universities In Bengal Part Of UGC Zonal Panels'

 State Education minister Bratya Basu on Wednesday came down heavily upon the University Grants Commission (UGC) for not including a single Vice-Chancellor from 40 odd universities of Bengal in its five zonal committees.

The minister further termed UGC's move as partisan having dubious intentions.

"The UGC has constituted five zonal committees from Vice-Chancellors of central, state, private and deemed to be Universities, to facilitate the universities to develop a road map for effective implementation of significant initiatives of UGC. The zonal committee for North Eastern and Eastern Zone comprises seven members- astonishingly none among them are from any of the 40 such universities of Bengal. That too at a time when the President of Association of Indian Universities is VC of one of our foremost universities !# Partisan UGC #dubious intentions," tweeted Basu .

Interestingly, universities like Jadavpur University (JU) and Calcutta University (CU) have been ranked among the top universities in various rankings. Jadavpur University (JU) has emerged as the sole state-run university from the country to feature in the QS Sustainability World Ranking 2023.

A total of 700 institutes feature in the list, of which 15 are from India. CU has been adjudged first among all central and state aided universities and institutes in India on the basis of holistic growth and development in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Ranking 2022. "The minister has expressed his amazement over this move by the UGC particularly when the universities in Bengal have received accolades across the globe," a senior official of the state Higher Education department said. Jadavpur University Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das said that he would write to the UGC Chairman requesting him to keep at least one member from Bengal in its zonal committee. "Bengal has made an immense contribution to higher education. So, I will request the UGC Chairman to do the needful in this regard," Das said.