UGC declares Arya Vidyapeeth College as an Autonomous College

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University Grant Commission(UGC) declared Arya Vidyapeeth College, Guwahati as an Autonomous College by UGC for the next 10 years.

This has been announced today. It is a matter of great pleasure for all Aryans.

Established on 29th July 1958, Arya Vidyapeeth College, is one of the beacons in the field of education in Assam, catering to the requirements of higher education and tapping the intellectual potential of the youth of the entire North East India. Tomaso Ma Jyotirgamaya (Let the advent of light remove all darkness) are the opening words of the vision statement of the College. Arya Vidyapeeth College is the fruit of the missionary zeal and relentless efforts on the part of a team of exceptionally farsighted visionaries led by Late Giridhar Sarma, an exceptional personality, renowned academician and litterateur of repute. Luminaries like Mahendra Mohan Choudhury (former Chief Minister of Assam and Governor of Punjab), Prof. Radha Kanta Das, a prominent mathematician  of the region, educationist Sarat Chandra Goswami and some other leading citizens were involved in this noble endeavour.

Since its inception, the College has consistently been able to meet the challenges and ever changing demands in the field of higher education. While keeping its roots deeply entrenched in human values, the College has carved a niche for itself as a melting pot of diverse cultures of the region which reflects the true spirit of India. The College is committed to empower the young generation through quality education and provides various opportunities to hone their extra­ curricular skills and thereby developing their strong sense of social responsibility. Arya Vidyapeeth College has played a significant role in academic upliftment of the disadvantaged students of the region. The College has a consistent record of ensuring a better academic performance of students with a lower input at the entry level.

Arya Vidyapeeth College led all the Grants-in-aid Colleges of Assam in  opening  Post graduate Courses (with Mathematics) as well as in opening Honours Courses(with Economics). It  needs to be mentioned that the College  introduced Post-graduate Course in Chemistry and Under- Graduate Course in Commerce from 2015 on a self-sustaining basis. Presently, the College offers major courses in 19 subjects at the under­ graduate level. Keeping in mind the changing scenario, the College has been successfully running self­sustaining Certificate Courses in Computers, Human Rights and Bioinformatics. The academic status of the College received an encouraging boost when the Biotech Hub was launched under Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India in 2009. On account of its excellent performance since its inception, the Biotech Hub of this College has been appreciated by DBT, Government of India. The Hub has been upgraded to Advanced Institutional Biotech Hub by DBT in 2015.

The College has also reached out to the larger masses through distance learning by opening up a full-fledged Study Centre of the world’s largest Open University, IGNOU. Various courses ranging from Certificate to Master’s level are offered in the Centre. The College campus encompases more than 15 acres of land, which include the academic campus, hostels, residential campus, a playground, and an Urban Health Centre. The students are provided free medical service in the Urban Health Centre. Moreover, the Health Centre caters to the neighbouring locality as well. The laboratories of the College have all the requisite facilities which are supported by DST-FIST. The College has also added some digital class rooms to its existing facility. The library of the College has a substantial collection of books and journals available to the students and teachers. The reading space of the College library has been expanded to accommodate more readers.. The cataloguing of the library has been updated with the latest KOHA software. The library remains open during the College vacations also, catering to the needs of the students and faculty as required.

Arya Vidyapeeth College has been identified by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as an institution with potential for excellence. The College with Potential for Excellence (CPE) distinction with its accompanying grant has helped the institution to scale greater heights of excellence. As a part of the ongoing CPE scheme, several projects have been initiated both for institutional as well as community development. 24- hour power back-up facility, language laboratory, UV­ VIS spectrophotometer, gemological instruments etc., are all part of the first phase of implementation. CPE grant has also led to the establishment of the Historical and Anthropological Cultural Heritage Centre in the College. The tradition of relentless pursuit of academic excellence and social commitment is aptly reflected in the re-accreditation of the college with grade ‘A’  by the National   Assessment    and  Accreditation   Council (NAAC) in 2016.

The “Diamond Jubilee” of the College was celebrated in the year 2018. Recently, six departments of the college has been selected by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology under “Star College Scheme”.

A Students’ Aid Fund  support students belonging to economically backward section of the society. The students are also facilitated to avail various scholarship schemes of the Government agencies. To address the problems faced by the slow learners, special , tutorial and remedial classes are arranged. Coaching classes are also organized for students appearing in NET/SLET /TET and other competitive examinations. Academic and Career Counselling services are also provided to the students. The College has set up an Anti-ragging cell to curb the menace of ragging. For the overall development of the students, the College organizes various extra-curricular and co-curricular programmes with active participation of the students. Besides the annual College magazine, all the departments and the hostels publish Wall magazines with students as editors and contributors. To ensure participatory democracy, the college has included student representatives in different committees and cells.

As a part of its community service and social responsibility, the College has adopted Garbhanga village in the periphery of Guwahati city. The College has adopted the only lower primary school of the village and has taken certain positive steps to help and support it. The teachers of the College are actively engaged in empowering the students of the said village in terms of education and social responsibility. Another village, Pamohi has been adopted by the NSS unit of the College. The NSS unit of the College organizes various camps in the village on regular basis.

The teaching faculty of the College has over the years shown a thirst for excellence. Faculty members are actively engaged in many research projects, authoring books and publishing research papers of national and international standards. The college has developed many national and international linkages on the academic front. Academicians and scientists from different  parts  of  the  country  as well  as  abroad have visited the institution for research purpose  and interaction with students. Prestigious awards like the Padmashree, Soviet Land Nehru, Sahitya Akademi Award, Katha Award and awards from Assam Sahitya Sabha  have been conferred on many of the faculty members. It is indeed a matter of pride to state that there are faculty members having patents to their name. A frog species Fezervarya sengupti has been named in  the honour of eminent herpetologist Dr. Saibal Sengupta, retired faculty of the College. Seminars and workshops are organized regularly for the enrichment of the students and the faculty members with funding from agencies like UGC, DST, ISI, ASTEC, etc. The affiliating University has recognized 8 departments of the College for research leading to Ph.D degree. A good number of teachers of the College are recognized as Research Guides by different universities.

Over the years, Arya Vidyapeeth College has emerged as a throbbing centre of learning and a melting pot of diverse cultures and intellect. The Aryan family beckons the student community to be a part of this glorious institution and stride along with it in its further strive for excellence.

An internationally acknowledged system, the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS), has been adopted by the College for its Undergraduate Courses from the 2019-2020 session. As envisaged by Gauhati University, this system provides more flexibility to the students in the choice of courses of their interest and students have the opportunity to explore additional avenues of learning beyond the core subjects leading to a more holistic development of the students.

Continuing the legacy of constant efforts to bring in new and unique ways to enhance the academic environment in and around the college campus, Arya Vidyapeeth College organized “The First Arya Book Fair, 2020” from 17th to 23rd February, 2020. This book fair definitely contributed in cultivating a habit of reading books not only amongst the students of the College but also the society at large.

The Covid-19 induced Pandemic disrupted the teaching-learning process during the last academic year. To overcome the recurrent challenges, the college has initiated various online academic activities viz. interactive lectures on a wide range of topics, workshops and webinars on e-resources and platforms and FDPs, besides the regular online classes held for all courses. The college has several ICT classrooms dedicated for this purpose. The College steadfastly continues to uphold to its vision of imparting quality education despite the present circumstances and has been immensely successful in adapting to the changing times.

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