Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur

Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur
Established	1856
Type	Public
Chancellor	Mayankote Kelath Narayanan (Governor Of West Bengal)
Vice-Chancellor	Ajoy Kumar Ray
Location	Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal, India
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	UGC
Website	www.becs.ac.in

The Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur (or BESU), established in 1856 at Shibpur, Howrah, is one of the oldest and Premier engineering university in India.^{[citation needed]} The university has programs for bachelor and masters degrees in engineering and applied sciences. The university also offers research degrees (Masters and Ph.D) in engineering and applied sciences.

The university was ranked 10th among all engineering institutes in India by the magazine "India Today" in 2005. The university is set to become the first Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology following the Indian Cabinet's approval of the proposal for its upgrade to IIEST on 12 October 2010.

Location

The university is located on the western bank of the Hoogli River in Howrah, opposite the city of Kolkata, which is connected by transportation to all the major Indian cities as well as to some foreign ones by rail transport and air routes and also by the Golden Quadrangle Road Network. The nearest railway station is Shalimar Station, which is two kilometres from the campus. The airport is 30 kilometres from the main gate of the campus.

History

Writers Building, Howrah, 1856

B.E. College Shibpur old gate

Bishop's College, Howrah, 1880

BESU was established on 24 November 1856 as the Calcutta Civil Engineering College, training personnel for the Public Works Department, and located at the Writers Building, Howrah. In May 1857 it became affiliated to the Calcutta University. From 1865 to 1879 the college functioned as the Civil Engineering Department of Presidency College, Kolkata. In 1880 the college moved to a new campus at Bishop's College, Howrah, and was known as Bishop's College. On 12 February 1920 the name was changed to Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur. The word Shibpur was deleted on 24 March 1921 and it became Bengal Engineering College.

Originally a civil engineering institution, in 1932 the first batch of students received a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Degrees in Electrical Engineering (1935), Metallurgical Engineering (1939), Architecture (1949) and finally Computer Science & Technology (1982) were later introduced. In 1992 acquired the Deemed University status, finally breaking its ties with the Calcutta University. Formal inauguration was done on 13 March 1993, by the then President of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma. On 1 October 2004 the institution was elevated to a full fledged university with the present name. It was formally inaugurated by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the President of India, on 13 July 2005.^{[citation needed]}

Admission

Admission to undergraduate programmes is tied to the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (WBJEE). Candidates who qualify for admission through WBJEE can apply for admission in four year B.E. (Bachelor of Engineering) and five year B.Arch. (Bachelor of Architecture) courses at Bengal Engineering and Science University. The admissions to postgraduate programmes (M.E.) are made through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). Other postgraduate entrance exams include Management Aptitude Test (MAT), Common Admission Test (CAT) for management studies. And for the master degree in the applied science branches the university conductes its own examination and interview.

Library

Eminent scientists, such as S. N. Bose who formulated Bose-Einstein statistics, have used the library of the university. In August 2009, a new building was inaugurated on the campus which now houses the Central Library with facilities such as digital archiving of all books.

International collaboration

The university has entered into international collaboration with the University of Windsor in Canada, Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, and the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

Notable alumni

• Badal Sircar, playwright and theatre activist
• Narayan Sanyal, novelist
• Jatindranath Sengupta, poet and writer

External links

• Official website