The Bengal Assembly on Wednesday tabled a bill to establish Bhawanipore Global University which will be the first private university in Kolkata Municipal Corporatipn area.

 

The Assembly on Tuesday approved two other bills to establish Rabindranath Tagore University in Dhaniakhali, Hooghly and Ramakrishna Paramhansa University in Agarpara, in North 24 Paraganas.

 

With the establishment of three new universities, the number of private universities in the state increased to 15.

 

Describing this as a significant development in the field of higher education during the present Trinamul Congress government, state education minister Bratya Basu said at the time of discussing the bill : “There were only 11 universities in the state when the present government came to power in 2011 all of which were government-aided. The figure has increased to 44 including many state-aided ones after the Mamata Banerjee government came to power.”

 

He said Bengal at present has 31 state-aided universities which is highest among many other states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

 

The two new private universities approved by the Assembly on Tuesday will offer regular undergraduate, postgraduate courses in conventional areas along with professional courses in vocational education, hospitality, food and nutrition and buisness administration.

 

The government’s move to establish three new private universities is in tune with the education policy adopted by the state in June this year which encourages to ” promote private investment in the higher education sector.”

 

The private universities approved by the Assembly mandates 25 per cent reservation for students coming from the state, five per cent reservation for students coming from financially weaker families getting scholarships and 50 per cent reservation of non-teaching employees posts for candidates from Bengal.

 

The Rabindranath Tagore University will be run by Kalipada Saha Memorial Trust and the Ramakrishna Paramhansa University by Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Mission.

 

The Bhawanipore Global University will be run by the Bhawanipore Gujarati Education Society which runs the Bhawanipur Education Society College.

 

Participating in the discussion on the bills. opposition members of the Assembly urged the government to be cautious about allowing too many private universities and ensure that the academic standard of the institutions is ” properly maintained”.