Autonomy must for Cotton College

GUWAHATI, April 13: The Task Force that was constituted by the two-day seminar on 'Vision of Cotton College in the New Millennium' held here on May 26 and 27, 1999, suggested upgradation of this century-old College of the State into a Deemed University. Why? What are the justifications for that?? "If Cotton is to survive the onslaught of degeneration and remain always a beckoning light for the country's coming generations in matters of excellence in the field of academic activities it should be freed from the present affiliating system so that it can exercise academic freedom, with administrative as well as financial freedom to a great extent, for determining its own destiny in keeping with its glorious heritage", said R N Bhattacharyya, a former Professor and Head of the Department of Botany, Cotton College. Then what is the glorious heritage of the College? Karunananda Dutta wrote in The Golden Jubilee Volume of Cotton College, "The liberality of the authorities, the enthusiasm of the public and the sincerity and devotion of the Principal and members of the staff began to bear fruit within a few years and the Cotton College come to occupy the first place among all colleges under the Calcutta University in the province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, so far as success in the FA is concerned. "As the Principal observes in his Quinquennial Report, 1901-1906, "in the whole educational history of the valley, the FA results since the opening of the college has been unparalleled. Assamese students have passed the FA in such numbers and in such high divisions as were never dreamt of by the most sanguine Assamese leaders when the college was started." In 1917, the Calcutta University Commission visited Cotton College and remarked, "with some development it will be ready for recognition as a University College or Potential University". The results of the Intermediate and Graduate classes of the College were uniformly brilliant during those days which made the College one of the best colleges in the country prompting the Calcutta University Commission to make the above observation. According to R N Bhattacharyya, autonomy should be granted to this College without any delay. The College fulfils all the norms required for attaining the autonomous status. It is long overdue for the College, said Bhattacharyya, who has since long been advocating autonomy to the College. Bhattacharyya was also a member of the Task Force that recommended Deemed University status to the College by 2005 AD. In fact, Bhattacharyya said, a state government decision was there some years back, to make Cotton College an autonomous institution as a first step towards upgrading it into a Deemed University. Moreover, granting autonomy to Cotton College was also recommended by a state government Committee headed by Senior IAS officer Jatin Hazarika around 1995, Bhattacharyya said. Pradip Sarma, a Lecturer in Geography in Cotton College and the convenor of the Task Force said, upgradation of the College into a Deemed University will surely help checking the exodus of State's students to other parts of the country as the College will then be able to exercise, freedom in matters of preparing syllabi and introduce modern and job-oriented courses copying pace with time. The College has by this time been able to show better results in PG courses, outshining even its affiliating Gauhati University (GU) in most of the cases, because of regularly holding the classes, total number of which is also more in the College, Sarma said, adding, the College has also a good reputation in matters of discipline. However, in facing the challenges thrown by development, the College should lay more stress in introducing courses in the areas like Information Technology, Mass Communication, Social Works, Tourism, Biotechnology and Performing Arts, Sarma said. On the Task Force's suggestion to abolish the Higher Secondary stage from the College, he said, this was done with the view to allowing the College to devote its resources more on research activities. If this is done, this will finally lead to improvement in the academic atmosphere as well as financial health of the College and will thus help in rooting out all possibilities of unwarranted development that may come in the way of development of the College as a glittering academic institution. It is also an important fact that the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Department of Science and Technology of the Union Government and the like, always fund research projects more. The College should design its strategy to attract these funds. If it is to devote its resources more on Higher Secondary stage, which has no scope for research activities, it will not be able to attract all these funds, Sarma said.