Will consult Mamata Banerjee on IISWBM university plan: Education minister Bratya Basu
Telegraph | 31 December 2025
The education department will place a proposal before the chief minister on whether the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM) seeks to transition into a university, education minister Bratya Basu said on Tuesday.
The president of the institute’s board of governors, Abhijit Chakrabarti, recently met minister Basu with such a proposal.
“If the institute comes up with a proposal to turn into a university, the department will speak to the chief minister. We want to revamp the institute,” Basu said at a programme to award medals to graduating students.
The country’s first management institute is now affiliated to Calcutta University and offers a two-year MBA programme. Students are admitted based on their CAT (Common Admission Test) score.
IISWBM started its journey in 1953 in a joint effort by Calcutta University, the Bengal government led by Bidhan Chandra Roy and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee first suggested upgrading IISWBM into a university in August 2017, at the inauguration of St Xavier’s University.
The education department, under the then education minister Partha Chatterjee, an alumnus of IISWBM, began discussions with the institute about turning it into a university.
An education department official said the university status would allow IISWBM to grant its own degrees, instead of relying on Calcutta University, design its own curriculum, secure larger government grants and corporate research funding and affiliate with other management schools in the state.
As part of the expansion plans related to the proposed university, a three-acre plot was granted in New Town for a second campus of the institute.
Chakrabarti, the president of the board of governors, said the proposal to turn IISWBM into a university did not progress in the absence of any persuasion from the institute.
“That effort has now begun,” he said.
Chakrabarti said they wanted to come out of the ambit of CU, as this will help the institute grow independently and introduce varied courses in management education.
“Let them come up with a proposal,” said minister Basu.
Chakrabarti said: “For a 72-year-old institute to survive, it has to create an identity of its own. That is why we want to emerge as a university. We can think of innovative programmes like an MBA in fire and safety management and hospitality management, then. This is not possible so long as we just remain a management school under CU.”
IISWBM director Krishna M. Agrawal wrote to the Bengal chief secretary in November for help in setting up its second campus.