Kolkata: Data from 2022-23 and 2023-24 show a dip in student enrolment in several state-aided universities with exceptions being Calcutta University, Jadavpur University and West Bengal State University, where the slide is marginal. But transferring teachers to those institutes under the new transfer bill would not help, said professors, pointing out that fresh recruitment and infrastructure development were the only solution.Established institutions, set up before 2011, like Rabindra Bharati University and Kalyani University saw a student enrolment decline of 24% and 43% respectively. The drop was even more profound at universities established after 2011, such as Darjeeling Hill University, where the figure dropped 80%, from 279 to 56 students, Harichand Guruchand 63%, Sanskrit College & University 55% and Gour Banga 35%. At some institutes, distance courses have also seen a decrease in the number of students. “After the pandemic and the introduction of NEP, the number of students has been dropping across the state. But some, like JU and CU, are holding on to their strengths of faculty, infrastructure and ranks. If the govt transfers those faculty members and sends them to a places, which have neither infrastructure nor students, students and researchers in the older institutes will be deprived. We expected this govt to revive public education by recruiting teachers and developing infrastructure but the transfer bill will bring about the collapse of the govt-aided education system, making way for privatisation,” said WBCUTA general secretary Nilay Kumar Saha.Echoing Saha, JUTA president Partha Pratim Ray said, “The number of students in many govt universities is declining due to teaching and non-teaching staff shortage, poor infrastructure and lack of job security. To bring students back to campuses, more teachers should be recruited, the infrastructure of classrooms and labs needs to be improved, and the universities must be granted autonomy. JU has been able to hold on to its NIRF and other rankings because of its faculty strength and quality of students. Transferring teachers from there would jeopardise teaching, research as well as the ranking.”Though an higher education department official claimed the govt was trying to strike a balance between older and newer universities by exchanging faculty strength and that no university would suffer, Kalyani University Teachers’ Council secretary Satyajit Dhar said, “ If professors are transferred from one university to another, it will only aggravate the situation and weaken the public education system. We have departments at our university with only one teacher. We need recruitment and infrastructure development to bring students back to state-aided universities.”The reason for the dip in the student number was different at RBU, said an official there. Debasish Bhattacharyya, RBUTA general secretary, said the data included that of students in the distance courses. “The decrease is in the number of distance mode students and, that too, due to a wrong policy of NAAC evaluation, adopted by UGC, which led to RBU losing affiliation for a number of subjects. But for courses in the regular mode, we have a considerable number of students and the immediate need is teacher recruitment amid almost 50% vacancy.”
