Amita Chattopadhyay first vice chancellor of Presidency University

KOLKATA - Renowned professor of philosophy Amita Chattopadhyay is all set to be the first vice chancellor of the Presidency University.

Chattopadhyay is an alumnus of the Presidency College and a retired professor of the Jadavpur University.

I am really happy. To be more frank, I am overwhelmed. It is a great honour for me that I have been selected as the first vice chancellor of Presidency University,” Amita Chattopadhyay told IANS over phone.

Earlier this year, the West Bengal assembly passed the bill to upgrade the 192-year-old Presidency College into university.

I will join from either first week of November or from Nov 1 itself. The job is really very challenging, said Chattopadhyay, who had taught at the Jadavpur University for the last three decades.

The institution, with around 2,500 students, still churns out talent, but there has been a lot of criticism about its falling standards due to politics in teacher recruitment and frequent student unrest. Founded in 1817 as Hindu College, the institution was christened Presidency College in 1855.

Among its alumni, the college boasts of poet Rabindranath Tagore, social reformer Swami Vivekananda, freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, filmmaker Satyajit Ray, Marxist leader Jyoti Basu, economist Amartya Sen and scientist Satyendranath Bose.