Calcutta University gets Rs 35 crore from both governments; to spend on research
Telegraph | 29 November 2025
Calcutta University will spend ₹35 crore, received from the Union and state governments, on instruments and research.
“The university has ranked poorly in this year’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). Research is among the parameters where there is room for improvement. We want to spend the money to buy instruments and focus on higher research,” vice-chancellor Ashutosh Ghosh said on Friday.
The fund was approved under the Rashtriya Uchchatara Shiksha Abhiyaan (RUSA 2.0) scheme. In the grant, 60% will be provided by the Union government and the remaining by the state.
The funds will be routed through the education department.
The money has to be utilised by March 31, 2026.
The vice-chancellor had earlier expressed concern about the decline in rankings and urged teachers to step forward and work collectively to arrest the slide.
In the rankings announced in September, CU dropped from 4th place in 2024 to 15th among state universities across India.
In the overall university category, CU slipped from 18th to 39th. “Amid our efforts to do better in research and publications, the sanction of funds has come as a boon. In our detailed project report for RUSA, we specified the instruments that we had to buy. Now that the money has been sanctioned, the departmental heads are being told to make the purchase,” Ghosh said.
An official said CU was allotted ₹50 crore in 2021.
Of this, the university got ₹7.5 crore in 2022, and it was utilised.
Following that, the university did not get any amount until Tuesday, when ₹35 crore was sanctioned.
“It seems that the university did not pursue the Union ministry for the remaining part of the fund that was allotted,” a senior CU official said.
CU has had an interim VC or authorised VC since the removal of the last full-term vice-chancellor, Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee, by the Supreme Court in October 2022 on grounds of illegality in her appointment.
Ghosh, shortlisted by a Supreme Court-appointed search-and-selection committee, joined CU earlier this month.
Since assuming office, Ghosh has identified improving NIRF scores as a priority.
“During the ranking, weightage is given to research, paper publication, patenting and projects. If we start investing in research now, CU is bound to get the results in the subsequent years. A better rank will also help the university attract bright students and more funds,” VC Ghosh told Metro.
After submitting the utilisation certificate for ₹35 crore, the university will try to get the remaining ₹7.5 crore.
Earlier, Ghosh had urged faculty members to analyse the possible reasons for the dip in ranking and suggest measures for improvement.
The meeting on RUSA held in Delhi was also attended by JU pro-VC Amitabha Datta.
“We are expecting a fund allotment for JU as well,” a education department official said.
Calls and text messages to JU pro-VC Datta and VC Chiranjib Bhattacharjee from this newspaper did not yield a response on Friday.