In the comity of higher education institutions in the State, Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar College (better known as BJB College), Bhubaneswar, stands apart. There are few other educational institutions in Odisha so closely associated with great social reform movements of the last century. Named after Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar Bhramarabara Ray Mahapatra, the rebel extraordinaire of pre-Independent India, it is located over an area of 28.2 acres of land near Kalpana Square on the National Highway connecting Cuttack and Puri.
It constitutes BJB Autonomous College and BJB Junior College. The entire college building with a portico at its centre, with a beautiful garden and a stadium in front and a long granite wall surrounding it, remain an ornament and an object of pride to the capital city of Odisha. It was an affiliated college of Utkal University till 1998. It has been functioning as an autonomous institution since 1999 following the conferment of autonomy by the UGC. The college was placed in Grade ‘A’ in 2004 after an assessment by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), an autonomous body of the University Grants Commission, New Delhi.
History
Started as a pre-university college, the dream of establishing a full-fledged college with its own campus was realised in 1957 through the initiative of the Government of Odisha. The base of the institution was education for all. The founders had set the objectives in clear terms — education for all irrespective of caste, creed and sex, and uplift of the socially and economically weaker sections through education. Though the funds were raised slowly, the college has today grown into a major centre of education.
Needless to say, in keeping with its fast expansion as a premier multi-faculty co-educational institution, it has earned the reputation of attracting the largest number of emeritus students to its various programmes of study from all over the country.
Courses
The college now has 3,000 students and 22 courses. Students are offered job-oriented graduate, postgraduate and research courses. The sprawling campus with two imposing buildings house well-equipped labs, an automated general library with reprographic and Internet facility and a CD-Rom section. A centralised computer laboratory in addition to the department-wise computer labs is also available.
UG courses in the junior college include anthropology, economics, education, geography, Hindi, history, logic, mathematics, Odia, political science, psychology, Sanskrit, sociology, statistics, music and IT, environment education, physical education and English.
According to Dr Haripriya Satpathy, principal of the autonomous college, apart from regular courses like bachelor’s in arts, science and commerce, some selected self-financing courses have been introduced with the approval of the Government such as master’s in social work, BSc (hons) in biotechnology and computer science as well as diploma in medicinal plant management. The new programmes instituted in the recent past are honours in Indian music, five-year integrated MSc in bioinformatics, five-year integrated MBA, five-year integrated MSc in electronics and telecommunication, two-year MA in journalism and mass communication, two-year master’s in financial control, three-year bachelor’s in IT and management.
BJB Autonomous College is one of the first institutions in the State to introduce the semester system in 2006-2007 following the guidelines of UGC. There is continuous evaluation through mid-semester/internal assessment (20 per cent) and semester examination (80 per cent) as well as seminar presentation and project and field work.
The college was provided with a special grant of `1.5 crore for the 2010-12 session after being accorded the ‘College with Potential for Excellence’ status by the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi. With this label, BJB became the first college from the state and one of the 158 colleges in the country to have received UGC recognition.
Under this status, five departments — English, geography, physics, botany and commerce — have got the ‘UGC Star Status’. Around half the grant amount was spent in the first year on procuring IT-enabled equipment such as laptops, projectors, lab equipment, photocopy and scanning machines, apart from gadgets, furniture, books and journals for all departments.
Second-year economics student, Diptimayee Pradhan, says, “Teachers hold special classes to clear our doubts. Ranked number one in Odisha, there is no doubt about quality.”
The college also has an active alumni association, which not only holds annual day celebrations but also maintain links with the alma mater by sponsoring awards and setting up computer labs.
— diana@newindianexpress.com