Xavier’s to send draft to become a University

St. Xavier’s College will start offering Ph.D. courses to students in four subjects from the present academic year, St. Xavier’s College principal Father Felix Raj said on Thursday. The college will offer Ph.D. programmes in microbiology, biotechnology, physics and commerce.

The college principal also informed that the proposed St. Xavier’s University, which is undergoing construction, will start some courses from its Rajarhat Campus in July 2017. He said that he would urge the state government to turn it into a state government-approved minority university under the PPP model. The authorities would submit a draft proposal to the state government in this regard by the end of June.

“We should be able to start some courses by July 2017 in the university campus. We are contemplating of submitting the letter of content to the government of West Bengal in a month’s time and also the draft proposal. The proposed university would be minority in nature,” Father Felix Raj said. Once completed, the St. Xavier’s University would offer courses in MBA, MSW, B.Com, BBA and M.Com.

“We are keen that the private university to be set up on a public-private partnership basis. We also want the state government to support the university financially in order to keep the fees at a reasonable level and accommodate more students,” he said.

Once the bill gets through in the Bengal Assembly, the proposed institution would be the second Jesuit-run University in the country after one in Orissa. However, it would be first of its kind to be built on PPP model.

Meanwhile, the college was in the process of tying up with various US universities for student and faculty exchange programmes. “We are having talks with Loyola Mary Mount University, Fordham University, St. Cloud University, St. Joseph’s University and Santa Clara University among others for this purpose,” he added.