February 6, 2014
WB CM urges Presidency University to organise World Education Festival
West Bengal Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee today laid the foundation stone for the second campus of the prestigious Presidency University here at Rajarhat.
The Chief Minister said that the University should aim at the No.1 status in the world and her government would render all kind of help in achieving that.
“The state has already allotted 10 acres of land and Rs 10 crore to Presidency University and it is an investment in the promise of quality education. It`s our intention with a vision for tomorrow,” she said. West Bengal Government had earlier given a nod to creation of five chairs in Presidency University named after Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Kazi Nazrul Islam and Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose.
“Presidency should organize a `World Education Festival` where brightest minds from across the world can freely exchange ideas,” WB CM remarked. “The West Bengal government will continue to provide all support to Presidency University,” the Chief Minister promised, amidst a thunderous applause.
She also called for online application systems to be made functional in colleges across the state to streamline the admissions procedure.
The Chief Minister also requested students, teachers and former students to come forward and help the University in its bid to gain the No. 1 status. The University, she suggested, should stress more on the education exchange programme with other foreign universities and try to bring in the best brains from outside.
Listing out the support given by the state government to Presidency University, the Chief Minister said, “We have sanctioned 331 faculty positions and 133 non-teaching staff for Presidency University. Academicians from across the globe have joined Presidency University as faculty members.”
On a lighter note, she added, “Two of my Cabinet colleagues are from Presidency. One manages Lakshmi (Dr Amit Mitra) another Saraswati (Bratya Basu). They are doing a great job.”
Ending her speech quoting Tagore, WB CM said she wants to see Presidency as a global brand in the education sector, at par with Harvard and Cambridge.
