The West Bengal government is in the process of setting up a world-class university in the state, so that students do not have to travel to Europe or the US to pursue higher studies, said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday.
Talking at a state-level teachers’ convention, she said the university is to be set up near the Visva Bharati University at Santiniketan, and the land for the campus has already been surveyed.
“We are planning to set up a new international-standard university within a three minute distance of Visva Bharati University. It will be named Biswa Bangla Biswabidyalaya,” Mamata said. Biswa Bangla (Global Bengal) is a brand name which was developed after she came to power in 2011, and is used to promote all state-backed products, from handicraft to the annual business summit.
“Why should students go to Chicago for higher studies? Chicago should come here,” she said. “We have already identified and surveyed the land for the new university. It will be built in the pattern of Santiniketan,” she said, referring to the university set up by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1921 at Santiniketan — a seat of global learning, influenced by his ideals of humanism and internationalism.
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