Vice Chancellor's Message
On March 19, 2025, I was on my way to Midnapore from Kolkata to join my new post as Vice-Chancellor of Vidyasagar University. The responsibility I was entrusted with filled me with a sense of challenge. Being a son of the soil, my pulses throbbed as I imagined the life and works of the legendary visionary reformer of the nineteenth century, Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, in whose memory the institution was betokened. Would I be able to do justice to the mighty spirit of the doyen of Indian Renaissance?
Once I entered the varsity portals and met my new family members – the university embraces the spirit of working like a family. I discovered the immense potential the institution had and how avid it was to make the fullest use of it.
It is my great pleasure and opportunity to welcome you to Vidyasagar University. Created as a State University in 1981, the fledgeling institution flourished rapidly. First of all, I would like to share my feelings that as the Vice-Chancellor of this University which was established in 1981 in the name of Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, I have received a very good academic ambience, state-of-the-art level infrastructure for Research & Development, enriched and well-equipped Faculty Members, dedicated Officers & Staff Members, sincere and obedient Students & Scholars at this University. All of them are really the ASETT of this University.
Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, a legendary figure in the 19th century, whose contribution to every aspect of human civilization, like Social Reform and Education for all with particular emphasis on Women’s Education, showed the way for upliftment of the society through quality education which is still relevant in every level from Nursery to University education. I am paying my deep sense of gratitude, regards and pronam to this divine soul on this platform.
Since its inception, the University has committed itself to the gamut of teaching and learning in higher education, with the prime objective of rendering value-based quality education and providing research and extracurricular activities in the best possible manner. All those efforts have been for spreading alongside the benefit of higher education in an environmentally challenged location (drought prone, lateritic soil, degraded forest and extreme climatic conditions) inhabited mostly by poor and marginalised peoples of the society but this place has a glorious history of playing a pivotal role in the freedom struggle of India. The University has registered its growth both qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of academic development, research outcomes and societal interactive process. Post-Graduate studies are conducted not only in 27 departments (14 Science subjects and 13 Arts & Commerce including 5 Language subjects) of the University but also in 21 general degree colleges, 05 autonomous colleges and in 10 private colleges/institutions, affiliated to Vidyasagar University, as well. The University also boasts of its 4 Inter-disciplinary Centres namely Centre for Adivasi Studies and Museum, Centre for Environmental Studies, Centre for Life Sciences and Centre for Women’s Studies. The number of affiliated general degree colleges is 56 out of which 10 colleges have been awarded ‘A’ Grade through NAAC accreditation. The subjects offered in the undergraduate colleges cover the traditional subjects as well as modern emerging ones. A few professional colleges providing courses in management and social work also belong to this University circuit.
The University has a mission to deliver quality education, knowledge and sustainable development in all aspects of human resource and employment generation through conventional and professional activities of life-long learning.
Situated in the historic city of Midnapore, Vidyasagar University has a beautiful sprawling and eco-friendly plastic-free campus which houses administrative departments, post-graduate departments for teaching, learning and research, a Centre for Distance and Online Education (CDOE), expanding hostel buildings for both male and female students, residential accommodation for both teaching and administrative staffs, a play ground, a student amenity Centre and Extension Centres. The University now boasts of being one of the first smart campuses in West Bengal. In consonance with its vision to be a centre of excellence in the areas of teaching and research & development, Vidyasagar University’s academic structure and Aims & Objectives have been so designed to enhance students’ ability to become highly competent professionals and global players of the future.
The overall achievements of our University give us tremendous confidence and indicate that we are moving in the right direction in consonance with our Vision and Mission and obviously with a firm determination. Our University has been able to champion the spirit of progress in the academic circle of West Bengal and spread the message to other parts of the Country. But this is not the end, it is rather a beginning, and we have to work harder and harder as a team to achieve bigger and higher goals both in the fields of higher education and social reconstruction. We have to dedicate ourselves with absolute commitment to make Vidyasagar University as one of the pioneering Universities in the field of academic and administrative activities through innovative ideas in Teaching, Research & Development.
Our faculty members have put in outstanding efforts in blending quality research with pedagogic skills. They have made full use of the smart class rooms and have pulled in a substantial amount of research funding throughout the year. Faculties of several departments were felicitated with awards in recognition of their contribution to teaching and research. Their research endeavours have attracted significant grants from funding agencies for the development of pedagogic and research infrastructure in the campus. Our teachers have travelled far and wide on their academic tours in India and abroad. Conferral of the award of D Lit and D Sc on a regular mode has started.
In concurrence with the recommendations of the Department of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal, Vidyasagar University has successfully implemented new Curriculum and Credit Framework for Undergraduate Programmes (CCFUP) in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) from the academic session 2023-‘24. With positive participation and cooperation of the stakeholders, especially the affiliated Colleges, the University has been able to introduce 4-Year Undergraduate programmes from this academic session to facilitate the students at par with other parts of the country. The faculties of the respective subjects are reforming and restructuring the syllabus in accordance with the new Undergraduate Curriculum to strengthen the learning as well as job skill enhancement which is one of the key focus of the new education policy of the Government of India.
Vidyasagar University has been adjudged as the ‘Best Public University for rendering Holistic Education’ and has been conferred with the Award for Education Eminence 2022 by the News 18 Bangla electronic media. This accomplishment belongs to all members of this University community who have really toiled hard with utmost efficiency to achieve this unique distinction. Apart from this, the NSS Cell of Vidyasagar University has received the State NSS Award from the Government of West Bengal for the 2019-’20 academic session for outstanding performance in the field of community service. Vidyasagar University has featured within 101 to 150 top ranking institutions in the country, in the University Category, as per “National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) – India Ranking 2023” by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. It is worth mentioning that Vidyasagar University participated in the India Today Best Universities Ranking for the year 2021-’22 and has secured 31st rank in the ‘All-over Institutes’ category. Apart from these, Vidyasagar University has celebrated the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ (75 Years of Indian Independence) through various academic, social and cultural events throughout the year to commemorate this very significant occasion. Another feather in the cap of Vidyasagar University is the installation of a Sensor Based Continuous Air Quality & Real-time Noise Level Monitoring machine by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board, the first to have been installed by them in West Bengal.
It has been decided to celebrate 26th September as Vidyasagar Divas each year. Starting from 2021, the Vidyasagar Purashkar has been conferred to different distinguished personalities widely recognized in their respective fields. The University has also celebrated 75 years of Indian Independence through various year-long programmes.
Apart from the Wi-Fi enabled Smart Campus with free internet, Vidyasagar University now boasts of having 13 audio-visual Smart e-Class Rooms, 82 e-enabled classrooms, RFID based Wi-Fi enabled Library, PWD compliant campus with assistive technologies, Ragging Free campus, scheduled Bus service and shuttle Car service, Placement Cell and Stress Management Cell, Modern Garbage Disposal System in the campus and Subsidized Meals to the postgraduate students. The only institutional setup for academic research on tribal culture and literature within the varsity system of this state is now located in our campus as an interdisciplinary Centre for Adivasi Studies. It maintains an Adivasi Museum as part of its archival project. It is pertinent to mention that there are a number of remarkable feats that the University achieved such as the Community Radio Station (Betar Vidyasagar), the Mini Indoor Games/Recreation Complex called P K Banerjee Indoor Games Complex and a Concrete Cricket Pitch dedicated to the students of the University, a new Mini Bus, the University Yoga Centre and a Basketball Court have also started off. Besides this, a two-storied Humanities Building has been built and will be made operational shortly. Apart from the Automatic Weather Station, a Sensor Based Continuous Air Quality & Real-time Noise Level Monitoring Display Board has been installed at the University very recently and we are thankful to the West Bengal Pollution Control Board for selecting Vidyasagar University as the first University in the State to install the same. The University has added another feather in its cap by installing a Lightning Detection Sensor (LDS) on 15th March, 2022 in technical collaboration with National Remote Sensing Centre. The possibility of lightning and its early detection is possible through this device. This LDS will be of immense help to the local farmers, which will forecast the chances of lighting in the lightning prone areas, thus helping local people to take advance precautions resulting in reduction in deaths/accidents caused by lightning strikes. Apart from this, the Coastal Observatory and Outreach Centre (COOC) was established at Vidyasagar University on August 31, 2023. It is an interdisciplinary Centre to pursue research and education on ocean, coast and disaster related studies. The Coastal Station of COOC is located at Meenalay, Digha, Purba Medinipur. The Centre has been established in collaboration with the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India and Fisheries Department, Govt. of West Bengal. A Workshop entitled Go For Administrative Leadership was organized at Vidyasagar University in order to inspire the students to achieve higher goals in their lives. The District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police of Paschim Medinipur enthused the students and told them to stop not till their goals are achieved. Apart from this, other senior IAS officers also shared their experiences and advised the students to remain firm in their determinations of winning every obstacle in their lives. Coaching for the Civil Services Examination has been resumed in 2022 after a temporary pause due to COVID-19 pandemic. It is worthy to mention that the Cine Club of Vidyasagar University has been rejuvenated and has started screening quality films for Film education and entertainment of one and all. The Nature Club of Vidyasagar University has taken the initiative of rejuvenation of open wasteland of about 5 acres inside the University campus into a productive and eco-friendly fruit orchard coupled with flower gardens. In this connection, 200 saplings were planted at the inaugural programme held on 17th August, 2023. In the course of these developments, however, the entire community of Vidyasagar University is very much concerned about maintaining the ecological health of the campus which is reflected in converting a huge chunk of waste land of about 150 acres, at the very beginning of the University, to a ‘Green Belt’ with the passage of time with very little emission of atmospheric pollutants, alongside promoting several Green Technology based activities like bioconversion of solid wastes into organic fertilizers, promoting the propagation of pollinators alongside harvesting honey, production of mushroom culture, aquaculture, rain water harvesting, installation of solar panels, maintenance of orchards, maintenance of animal feeding sites etc.
Vidyasagar University has been accredited (4th Cycle) by NAAC with B++ Grade (CGPA of 2.79 on a four point scale). We have excelled in our previous performance and this result has definitely lifted our spirits to further stretch our limits and to achieve higher targets. The performance of Vidyasagar University has been quite satisfactory and the University is doing consistently well in the NIRF Rankings released by the MHRD. However, we must focus on enhancing the quality of our academic activities in the field of Teaching, Research and Administration to uplift the Perception so that Vidyasagar University may find a significant place in the National Level Assessment systems like NAAC, NIRF etc. in the coming days.
It was indeed a matter of intense joy for all of us when we saw that the Stanford University of USA published a list of elite scientists from all over the world featuring the names of Professor Madhumangal Pal, Professor Sankar Kumar Roy and Dr. Ganesh Ghorai from the Department of Applied Mathematics with Oceanology and Computer Programming and Professor Satyajit Saha of the Department of Physics. Further, I want to elaborate that the Department of Applied Mathematics with Oceanology and Computer Programming of our University has secured 2nd position in the country in terms of research activities in the rank released by Research.Com based on the h-index which is considered as a standard parameter in determining the quality of research. It is worthy to mention that a team of researchers from the Department of Botany and Forestry under Professor Amal Kumar Mondal have discovered an alternate Madurkathi producing plant called Cyperus Platistylis in lieu of the traditional Cyperus Pangouri plant, in collaboration with the IIT, Kharagpur. This discovery has found a place in the famous Nature Magazine published from London, United Kingdom. You all have made us proud and I, on behalf of the entire Vidyasagar University community, congratulate you for winning these hard earned laurels!
MOU has been signed with internationally acclaimed institutions like the Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology under the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Centre for Adivasi Studies and Museum of Vidyasagar University. It is to be mentioned here that this MOU has been signed at the Bengal Global Business Summit, Kolkata and the researchers from both the countries, especially the indigenous and tribal researchers, will benefit greatly from this agreement. Institutional linkages have also been established for carrying out academic collaborations between Vidyasagar University and the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England and Nuremberg University of Music, Germany. Also, different MOU with Foreign University is under process. A team of delegates from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, visited Vidyasagar University for a possible Research Collaboration and Cooperation and Exchange of Faculties and Research Scholars which may promote more effective use of resources and will provide enhanced opportunities in the areas of Skill Based Training, Education and Research.
The Women’s Football Team of Vidyasagar University has emerged as the Champion attheKhelo India University Games 2021 held at Jain University, Bangalore. This is the first time that the Women’s Football Team of our University went on to participate in any tournament and have created history by beating Guru Nanak Dev University, Punjab in the final to clinch the title.
About 28 Campus Interviews were held for students placement and about 134 students got placed (On and Off Campus) during July 2019 to March 2020; about 19 Campus Interviews were held for students’ placement and about 54 students got placed (On and Off Campus) during July 2020 to March 2021; about 29 Campus Interviews were held for students’ placement and about 74 students got placed (On and Off Campus) during July 2021 to April 2022. The students of Vidyasagar University have been placed in Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited, Bengaluru in the 2021-’22 session. A partial list of the organizations that recruited our students are – Azim Premji Foundation, Bayer Private Limited Company, Mumbai, CPF (India) Private Limited (Fish Feed), Force Motors, ICICI Bank, IIT Kharagpur (in different Projects), IFB Agro Industries Limited, New Hope Group, Switz India, Topper Technologies, to name a few. Apart from this, a good number of students also got selected through on and off campus placement activities.
As one of the most forward-thinking and creative Universities, Vidyasagar University has launched an Incubation Centre to promote various skills and entrepreneurship development for the on-campus and off-campus students.
The University has established the Centre for Continuing and Adult Education (CCAE) to offer different Certificate, Diploma and Degree courses for the working professionals, students and others in view to widening their knowledge and skills and to make them eligible for competitive job market. The learning domain includes courses for non-traditional students, non-degree career training, workforce training and formal personal enrichment courses.
The Central Library of Vidyasagar University is a state-of-the-art modern computerized library system with its excellent digital institutional repository, where different current as well as previous official documents like university publications, notifications, previous PG and UG question papers, Ph.D. theses, papers, e-books, e-journals, etc. are available in digital format and can be accessed by the users as per their requirements. Being a partner of the National Digital Library of India, a MHRD project, all these digital data are now harvested into the NDLI server and can be accessed by the NDL users using their username and password from anywhere in the world. A new three-storied annex building (with an approximate built-up area of 3300 sq.m.) has been constructed and in that extension part, the Circulation Desk, two text book Reading Hall, Ph.D theses unit, Rare Book unit, Book bank unit and an old newspaper unit are now in operation. Some other new units like Faculty Alcove, Audio-Visual Lounge, Meeting Room, Digital Archive section, Research Cubicle and a big reading hall for bound periodicals have also been constructed in the annex library building. Moreover, book bank facility is also available for financially backward students. The state-of-the-art RFID technology has been in use in different house-keeping operations of the library like in circulation for self-issue / return of books through RFID Kiosks, in workstations at Circulation Desk, in anti-theft security gates at the entrance/exit of the Library, in Hand-held Reader for inventory control and in stock verification of books etc. Integrated Library Management Software ‘KOHA’ is now in use for all library housekeeping operations. In this new system, issue/return notices are automatically generated and disseminated to the patrons through e-mail and SMS to make the patrons aware of their recent transactions. The University library also introduced Cloud based file sharing system for sharing internal office files with a view to reduce the use of papers and stepping towards green library. Remote access facility is also available to our registered members for accessing e-journals and other e-documents. The timings of the service units like the Reading hall, Reference section and the Periodicals section have been extended up to 20-00 hrs. on all weekdays while on Saturdays and Sundays these are kept open up to 17-30 hrs. The circulation desk remains open from 10-00 hrs. to 17-30 hrs. on all weekdays (excluding University holidays).
The Vidyasagar University Alumni Association (VUAA) is working in close partnership with the University and aims to link the alumni to the institution, develop strategic plans to support the University to achieve its vision, and to enable the institute to add value to all its stakeholders.
In the course of these developments, however, we have not allowed our ecological concerns to slacken for a moment. New green shuttles have started plying varsity stakeholders in and around the campus. Physical transportation has not only become fast but also comfortable. We continue the practice of observing a monthly No-AC day on campus to cut down on the emission rate as an essential step in preserving fresh air levels in the environment. We are waiting for the meteorological station in the campus to report significant changes in the quality of campus air. We have tried our best to support the academic and psychological needs of our students during the stressful times of the Covid-19 pandemic. We have also participated in the disaster management programme of the State Government in the wake of the ravages left behind by the devastating cyclones.
Smt. Mamata Banerjee, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Government of West Bengal, has been pleased to sanction a Mini Indoor Games/Recreation Complex for the students ofVidyasagar University which has already been commissioned and named as “P K Banerjee Indoor Games Complex”.
As a Vice-Chancellor of this University I shall try my best to enlighten the young students and motivate them properly to promote the academic environment in all respects for the benefit and upliftment of the society. It would be my utmost effort to provide the state-of-the-art level facilities to all Faculty Members, Officers, Staff Members, Scholars, Students, and all other Stake Holders of this University within an inspiring academic ambience. Finally, the creation of a new intellectual value and the cultivation of outstanding human resources will be my ultimate goal.
Professor Dipak Kumar Kar
Vice-Chancellor