St Xavier’s to open finance lab, award students with cash for studying in library

KOLKATA: Concerned over the diminishing habit of extensive reading and research, St Xavier’s College (autonomous), Kolkata, has decided to award three students spending maximum hours at the college library. The students will be handed over certificates, cash and mementos.


“The library can accommodate 300-400 students at a time. To encourage and inculcate reading habit among students, we have decided to introduce the incentives. Three students from undergraduate courses across all disciplines will be considered for the award,” said principal Fr Dominic Savio. The library at the college remains open from 7am-7pm.

The college is also set to open a new state-of-the-art ‘finance laboratory’ on the Park Street campus. “It will be the first of its kind in any college in Bengal. It is a research laboratory for students with finance specialization and commerce. It can also be used by accounting and finance faculties and researchers. It will have all major data on finance and economics. Databases like Prowess, Capital Line, India Stat, Bloomberg, etc, will be made available at the new finance lab. This will help in training in statistics, operational research and allied areas,” Savio said.

He pointed out that St Xavier’s College is known for its commerce section. “We have more than 3,500 BCom students. The commerce graduates and those majoring in finance have been doing well and mostly go on to become chartered accountants or pursue MBA. At the finance lab, all data needed by accounting and finance students will be readily available. There will be online interaction with stock exchanges and other agencies. Those who want to pursue further research will benefit from the rich collection of journals,” Savio added.

St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, will start new post-graduation courses in 10 more subjects in the next two years, as a part of its expansion programme. The college is going to offer MA courses in English, political science and Bengali at the Raghabpur Campus from 2019 academic session. It will also start MEd, if possible. “In the academic year 2020-21, MA in sociology and history, and MSc in chemistry, statistics/data science, economics will be started. PhD programme in computer science will commence from the academic year 2019. For all the PG courses available at the college, there are plans to start PhD programmes after two years.

Also, there are plans to start BSc (Hons) course in psychology from 2020,” the principal said. Among the other initiatives, the college has installed an anti-plagiarism software to check unauthorized copying in dissertations, researches, etc.

The 12th convocation of St Xavier’s College (Autonomous) Kolkata will be held on January 16, which will be the 159th Foundation Day of the Institution. Jadavpur University vice-chancellor Suranjan Das will be conferred the Nihil Ultra Award on the occasion.

The St Xavier’s College (Calcutta) Alumni Association (SXCCAA) has decided to open new chapters in North Bengal and South Africa.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/st-xaviers-to-open-finance-lab-award-students-with-cash-for-studying-in-library/articleshowprint/67446915.cms (Accessed on January 11, 2019)

UGC cell formed to cull dubious journals headed by Savitribai Phule Pune University staff

In May, the UGC had disqualified 4,305 journals out of 32,659 from its list of approved journals owing to their dubious nature

Located in the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) campus, the cell will be headed by Shubhada Nagarkar, assistant professor, department of library and information science, SPPU.

The University Grants Commission’s (UGC) National Cell for Journal Analysis to weed out dubious journals was inaugurated by UGC’s vice-chairman Professor Bhushan Patwardhan on Saturday.

Located in the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) campus, the cell will be headed by Shubhada Nagarkar, assistant professor, department of library and information science, SPPU.

In May, the UGC had disqualified 4,305 journals out of 32,659 from its list of approved journals owing to their dubious nature.

This action followed a study published in the March 25 issue of Current Science journal which had reported a spurt in the number of predatory and dubious journals offering ‘pay and publish’ services to gullible authors.

Patwardhan said that the incidence of research articles published in poor quality journals is very high in India, which has adversely affected the academic reputation of the country. “The UGC national cell in the SPPU will analyse all such journals and then the UGC will give final approval,” he said.

The UGC national cell will have representations from four zones with the north zone represented by the Jawaharlal Nehru University, south zone (Hyderabad University), west zone (Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda) and Tezpur University in the east zone.

In November, the UGC had formed a consortium of academic bodies to prepare and maintain a list of credible journals.

This consortium which is a body of over 20 council members such as Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), will recommend the list of journals to the monitoring committee of the UGC cell for further action.

 Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/pune-news/ugc-cell-formed-to-cull-dubious-journals-headed-by-savitribai-phule-pune-university-staff/story-nGk5uhmw59DNzNOhkcuUmJ.html (Accessed on January 11, 2019)