Calling for a mentoring role of IIT Kharagpur in “modernising” the state’s educational landscape and nurturing the visions of new institutions, West Bengal Higher Education Minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay said it’s time for the “best practices” of the country’s first IIT to be introduced in the engineering and polytechnic colleges.
Addressing the 72nd annual convocation of IIT Kharagpur on Saturday, Chattopadhyay said, “IIT Kharagpur is the first of the IITs (est. 1951), the officially recognised Institute of Eminence by the Government of India. It functions as a massive hub of multidisciplinary education, housing numerous specialised Centres of Excellence to bridge the gap between academic research, societal welfare, and industry demands. That is the collaborative model of academic development which I wish to see across our state. It can help mentor institutions across the state by sharing best practices in governance, curriculum design, faculty development, innovation ecosystems, research management, internationalisation and quality assurance.”
Hitting out at the previous Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government over what he called “institutional collapse”, the minister said, “During the past decades, the state witnessed deliberate as well as institutional collapse. The revelations of obnoxious incidents in academic institutes had shaken the conscience of the society to its core. Moral bankruptcy and structural breakdown led to systemic failure. It was a predictable outcome that replaced merit with muscle and inquiry with intimidation. Our Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education, number of colleges per lakh population have become abysmally low. The majority of the state universities are running in an ill-equipped manner.”
“The success of Bengal’s higher education ecosystem will become stronger when premier institutions actively nurture the growth of emerging institutions,” he added.
The minister also said the government plans to nurture the vision of new institutions such as IITs, IIMs and a fashion designing institute in North Bengal.
This year, IIT Kharagpur conferred 3,936 degrees across undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and professional programmes.
The degrees include 539 Ph.D., 908 M.Tech., 801 Dual Degree, 628 B.Tech. (Honours), 181 Four-Year B.S., 209 two-year M.Sc, 163 MBA, 59 PGDBA, 73 LL.M., 31 LL.B, besides several other postgraduate and specialised programmes.
Speaking to The Indian Express, IIT Director Suman Chabraborty said , “IIT Kharagpur will be very happy to play a crucial role because we have a convergence of knowledge. The future of education is changing rapidly. We wish to work together with the state government to help Bengal regain its pride.”
Chabraborty also spoke about how the institute has implemented the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
“More than 14,285 students created Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) IDs, of which over 11,275 have already been validated, enabling seamless credit mobility across programmes. Academic flexibility was strengthened through double-major enrolment exceeding 100 students, 25 micro-specialisations spanning engineering, law and entrepreneurship, and the availability of minors across all academic units,” he said.
Speaking on the outreach drive undertaken by IIT, Chakraborty said, “IIT Kharagpur undertook a fundamental transformation of its outreach ecosystem during the reporting year, redefining outreach from a collection of extension activities into a strategic institutional mission for national capacity building and global engagement.”
“The Institute has consciously embraced the vision of becoming a distributed university whose intellectual influence extends well beyond its academic boundaries. Outreach is therefore no longer perceived as an auxiliary function of the institute but as a strategic instrument for democratising excellence, strengthening higher education ecosystems and enabling lifelong learning,” he added.
A landmark initiative in this direction has been the conceptualization of the Outreach Course Network (OCN), an innovative framework designed to extend IIT-quality education to partner institutions across the country. Unlike conventional online courses that primarily serve individual learners, the Outreach Course Network has been conceived as an institution-to-institution academic partnership model, enabling structured learning under faculty mentorship, academic supervision and credit-compatible curricula, he said.
“During the reporting year, twenty-three micro-specialisations involving more than fifteen academic units were developed, laying the foundation for a scalable national academic network that will progressively connect hundreds of higher educational institutions with IIT Kharagpur’s academic ecosystem,” he added.
Cabinet Minister Dilip Ghosh, who was the Guest of Honour, spoke about how the city is known for IIT and also sought the institute’s assistance in developing the surrounding area.
“Kharagpur is known for IIT. They have not only made an institute but also are going to make a hospital. The area surrounding the institute is not well-developed. I want IIT assistance in it. There is a central school in the area too. I would urge the younger generation that even if they go abroad, they should come back. Don’t forget the country. If your family has invested, so have the people of the state. We should have the mentality that we should also provide jobs to others. Kharagpur has got several issues and with IIT’s assistance those can be solved,” Ghosh said.
This year, IIT Kharagpur conferred 3,936 degrees across undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and professional programmes. (Express Photo) 
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