Major Achievements

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Significant Achievements of the State Government since May 2011 (as on 06/01/2016)

Achievements of Higher Education Department from the year 2011-2016

1. Fifteen new Universities were set up. Of these, seven are State-aided (Coochbehar Panchanan Barma University; Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol; Bankura University; Diamond Harbour Women’s University; Raiganj University; West Bengal University of Teacher Training, Education Planning and Administration, Kolkata; and Sanskrit College and University) and eight are private universities (Techno India University, North 24 Parganas; Seacom Skills University, Birbhum; Adamas University, North 24 Parganas; Neotia University, South 24 Parganas; University of Engineering and Management, North 24 Parganas; JIS University, North 24 Parganas, Amity University, North 24 Parganas and Brainware University, North 24 Parganas). Of the fifteen Universities, thirteen are functional; the remaining two will start functioning from July, 2016.
2. The North Bengal University, Siliguri started a new campus at Jalpaiguri from 2013-14. Three Regional Centres of the Netaji Subhas Open University are being set up at Durgapur, Jalpaiguri and New Town, Kolkata.
3. Till 2011, the State had set up 36 Government Colleges. In the last four years, the State Government has set up 31 new Government Colleges (of which 28 are already functional and the remaining three will be functional from July, 2016) and 15 Government-aided colleges (fourteen are functional).
4. The State’s first Hindi-medium General Degree College at Banarhat, Jalpaiguri started functioning from August 2014. For the first time, Santhali was introduced as a subject in the State Eligibility Test (SET) conducted by the West Bengal College Service Commission, thereby opening up avenues for recruitment of Assistant Professors in Santhali in the State’s colleges.
5. As a result of the huge expansion in higher education, the State’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) which was 12.6 in 2011 rose dramatically to 17.5 in 2014 (as per the GoI’s All India Survey on Higher Education).
6. The West Bengal State Higher Education Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2013 was enacted with a mandate to provide a 17% reservation for OBC students, to be achieved over a six-year period starting from 2014-15, without reducing the total number of seats available for the General Category students. In 2014-15, the very first year of implementation, a total of 59,612 OBC students were admitted, which was 10.6 % of all students admitted in the State’s UG and PG level courses.
7. The annual expenditure under the Plan budget of the Higher Education Department went up from Rs. 111.74 crore in 2010-11 to Rs. 426.67 crore in 2015-16.
8. To improve the quality of teaching, 1570 teaching posts, 43 posts of Officers and 1036 non-teaching posts were created in the State-aided Universities, Government Colleges and Government-aided Colleges.
9. The West Bengal College Service Commission selected candidates for filling up 126 vacant posts of Principals and 1,907 posts of Assistant Professor in Government-aided Colleges.
10. The West Bengal Public Service Commission took up recruitment for 1,149 vacant and newly-created posts of Assistant Professors; by December 2015, it had recommended 937 candidates for appointment in Government Colleges. The Commission also started the recruitment exercise for 40 vacant posts of Principal in the State’s Government General Degree Colleges.
11. The West Bengal Public service Commission also took up filling up of 235 vacancies of teachers in different Government Engineering & Technical Colleges. Till December 2015, 41 candidates were appointed.
12. The Librarians of Government Colleges and Librarians/ Assistant Librarians / Deputy Librarians of Government-aided Colleges were conferred with “Teaching” status, along with all the attendant financial and service benefits, including Career Advancement Scheme and leave encashment up to 300 days.
13. The leave encashment of Principals and whole-time teachers of Government-aided Colleges at the time of superannuation was enhanced to 300 days. The Graduate Laboratory Instructors (GLIs) were conferred with “Teaching” status, along with the attendant financial benefits, including Career Advancement Scheme.
14. A long-pending demand of the hostel and mess employees of State-aided Universities and Government-aided Colleges was granted when they were conferred with ‘Group D / non-teaching employee’ status with the attendant benefits of pension, GPF, encashment of leave salary, etc.
15. As many as twenty Bills were placed before the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and passed, indicating the high level of reforms undertaken by the Higher Education Department.
16. New Recruitment Rules were framed for the post of Principal, Professors, Assistant Professors and Librarians in Government Colleges and Government-aided Colleges.
17. Under the Vivekananda Merit-cum-Means Scholarship scheme, which provides financial assistance to meritorious students belonging to economically weaker sections of society, scholarships amounting to Rs.170.04 crore were granted to 1,78,003 students.
18. A major e-governance initiative was taken to bring in greater transparency and fairness in admissions to all UG and PG level courses by making admissions online in all Government and Government-aided higher education institutions, from the academic session 2015-16.
19. The Biswa-Bangla Scholarship Scheme was instituted at SOAS (School of Oriental & African Studies), University of London for two scholarships at the Master’s level and one at Ph.D. level for students from the State.

Information sought for in Chief Secretary’s Letter dated 04.01.16

Serial No.	Information Asked	Action taken
1	Appointments made through Higher Education Department to regular posts, contractual appointments and employment generated by out sourcing of work (if any)	Information regarding appointments made through Higher Education Department to regular posts supplied in para 9, 10 and 11. In addition, this Department has generated employment (on contract basis) for 112 Data-Entry Operators through WEBEL in 28 new Government General Degree Colleges. Further 53 Data-Entry Operators through WEBEL were engaged in this Department
2	Public investments through Higher Education Department in creation of physical infrastructure	Information regarding the annual expenditure under the Plan budget of the Higher Education Department supplied in para 7
3	Total private investment in the sector being dealt with by Higher Education Department	Under Higher Education Sector, the State has received investment proposals worth Rs. 1408.00 crore from private Universities viz. JIS University, Neotia University, University of Engineering & Management, Amity University, Adamas University & Brainware University.
4	In respect of departments such as C&I, MSME&T etc. details of total investments public or private year-wise and sector-wise	N.A.
5	Expected employment creation based on capital-labour ratios in the sector	N.A.
6	Investment and employment creation in the services sector in respect of all departments may be estimated	Under Higher Education Sector, the State Government has received proposals for generation of employment of approximately 3000 persons from Private Universities viz. JIS University, Neotia University, University of Engineering & Management, Amity University, Adamas University & Brainware University.
7	All departments with targets for man-day creation/employment generation may highlight their achievement	N.A.
8	Details of capacity building/skill upgradation in different department & expected self-employment as a result thereof	For career-oriented and skill-based education, Community College Scheme (CCS) has been introduced in five Degree Colleges viz. Silda C.S. College, Paschim Medinipur; Mahisadal Raj College, Purba Medinipur; Burdwan; Moynaguri College, Jalpaiguri; City College, Kolkata and Derozio Memorial College, Kolkata. Government College of Engineering & Leather Technology is implementing a Skill Development Programme (Primary & Secondary) under Indian Leather Development Programme (ILDP) sanctioned by Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India. Total financial grant of Rs. 7,56,95,000.00 has been sanctioned for this program.

Major Achievements of Higher Education Department since May, 2011