Basanti Devi College B.Sc Review By M Palodhi

Even though I graduated from Basanti Devi College in 2013, I can provide an honest review about this college. When I went to get admission to this institution, the first day said a lot about the college’s administration. I was part of the 2010-2013 Maths Hons batch of Basanti Devi College. Although I cannot speak for every department of this institution, I can say a lot about the Maths department. But before discussing the truth about the Maths department of this institution, let me say some things about the overall ambiance of the college. One of the most crushing things about this college is the complete lack of fests. During the entirety of three years I spent in this institution, never did I encounter a single fest. I used to get jealous of my friends who studied at expensive and fancy colleges with a continual stream of celebrations. As Basanti Devi College is a government-sponsored college, everything is conducted in a shoe-string budget. I was pretty shocked when our fresher’s party solely consisted of a packet of cheap food items from Monginis. We used to have some functions for Rabindra Jayanti or teacher’s day, but they all used to take place in our respective classrooms.

Some people from West Bengal might know Basanti Devi College as an academically strong college, but the truth cannot be far from it. When we were in the first year of our Hons degree, five professors taught us different streams of mathematics. But among these five teachers, three of them were part-timers. So, in reality, there were two actual professors in our department. Now, these teachers were tremendously callous. The permanent professors mostly skipped classes. The condition became worse that we started skipping classes after half a year. Even though I cannot remember everything clearly, I don’t think any teacher ever gave us any extra test or assignment. Apart from the regular college mid-terms and pre-tests, we never did any assignment or surprise tests for honing our mathematical abilities. Now, you must be wondering despite having such a bad academic support from my college, how did I pass out with Maths Hons. The answer is Tuitions. In Kolkata, many coaching centers offer you tuitions in different subjects. More than 90% of students studying at Calcutta University depend entirely on the coaching centers for passing their exams. I was one of those thousands of students. Basanti Devi College had nothing to do with my results. I got 55.375% in Maths Hons. You might be thinking that it is a horrible graduate percentage, but trust me, at the time, Calcutta University used to mark students awfully. Also, our syllabus was archaic.

I have already talked about the faculty of Basanti Devi College. The entire faculty of this institution consisted of part-time lecturers. Most of these young part-timers had no idea what they were hired to do. Specific departments of our college had good teachers. But sadly, we got unlucky in that matter. The worst thing about our college was that most of the members of the Maths faculty did not care about attending the classes. I cannot say about other government-sponsored colleges in West Bengal, but the women-only colleges indeed suffer more than the co-ed colleges. The weak faculty of our college is one of the main reasons why so many of my peers dropped out of the course. Some of them even went to pursue entirely different fields after a year of studying at Basanti Devi College.

Like most government-sponsored colleges in West Bengal, Basanti Devi College also does not have any placement. No one came to our institution for hiring us, not even for internships. I cannot say about the current situation, but no placement was available during my time out there. That is why most students from this college had to wait for a long time after graduation to get a job.

I have no idea regarding the hostel facilities provided by Basanti Devi College. I used to travel from my home. As far as I know, this institution does not offer any living accommodation to its students.

Basanti Devi College is a moderately sized college. If you have ever entered any government-sponsored or government colleges in Kolkata, you will understand what I am talking about. There is a lawn at the center of the college premises. It was nice. The labs of the college are not that bad. But they are certainly not at par with the standard of other private universities in India. The library of our college is laughably tiny. You could not even sit there and study. But it was mostly fully stocked. We usually had no problem in getting most of our books from the library.

The campus of Basanti Devi College is tremendously down-to-earth. I certainly made friends for a lifetime in my college. People are helpful. As it is a women-only college, every student was able to lower their guard down. Even though we did not get a lot of academic assistance from this college, I am grateful to allow me to make some of the closest friends of my life.