Top 10 Colleges
Of India
As admission time approaches, students face the dilemma of making a choice from among the 10,000-odd colleges. INDIA TODAY-Gallup's fifth survey ranks the centres of excellence on key factors. The best in Arts, Science, Commerce, Law, Medicine and Engineering.

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EXCLUSIVE INDAI TODAY-GALLUP SURVEY

Kolkata's hallowed Presidency College
takes over as the country's best arts
institution even as "yuppie" St Xavier's
adds enough substance to vault to the
No. 2 slot

By Labonita Ghosh

Kolkatans can revel in the result. And this has nothing to do with the assembly elections. For the first time since the India Today survey began in 1997, two of its premier colleges, Presidency and St Xavier's, occupy the number one and two slots. Arts has always been an area that produces major upsets. Last year St Xavier's, Mumbai, crawled its way to the top after having moved from fifth to third place in the previous years. Now it is Presidency's turn to do the honours, moving rapidly from fourth to the prized first place. Making even more impressive strides is St Xavier's, Calcutta, that has moved from ninth to an equally creditable second.

So what makes Presidency cock of the hoop? Well, if you want to blend history with academic excellence, there's no college like it. This 184-year-old institution can count among its alumni Henry Vivian Derozio, Jadunath Sarkar, Rajendra Prasad, and, more recently, Amartya Sen and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya. That's besides a legendary line-up of teachers, mainly in its Arts sections: historians Sushobhan Sarkar and Amalesh Tripathi, and literature great Taraknath Sen. It is said that Taraknath couldn't quit teaching for a PhD programme because he didn't have a good enough guide, not even the great Shakespeare scholar A.C. Bradley, who regularly consulted with him.

The economics, history and English literature departments have over the years lent a superlative edge to the humanities section at Presidency, sometimes overshadowing the science streams altogether. "We believe in being trailblazers in the field of education," says Principal Amitava Chatterjee. "We need to show what quality education without compromise really means."

Examination results haven't slipped: the college still churns out toppers by the dozen every year. On an average, toppers in five Arts subjects are from the Presidency. Rigorous admissions tests and a unique system of tutorials never let the quality slump. The college has suffered some blows because of an indiscriminate transfer policy that routinely moves the best faculty members to other institutions. "It could also be a deterrent to some of the brightest alumnus from returning here to teach," says Professor Subhas Chakraborty. Autonomy remains an ambiguous dream. While it might check the transfer of teachers, it may also force some departments to become self-financing, leading to a cutback in funds. Excellent facilities like the library (second only to the National Library and one that spends Rs 10 lakh a year on books and journals) may find themselves constrained. Presidency is still trying to find the right balance.

There was a time when St Xavier's College, Kolkata, was dismissed as a brick-and-mortar recreation of a Bollywood higher-education institution. A place where rich, hip students hung out, where high-octane fests and college romances ruled. But within the "yuppie" look is quite a different set-up. In the last three years, the college has not only become one of the best for both arts and science subjects, but has also introduced a host of new disciplines like film studies, computer science and mass communication and videography. And the authorities haven't skimped on providing cutting-edge technology: cameras, a computer lab, a fully-equipped audio-visual room, a professional studio and an editing room. "Students outside the college think we only have fun here," says Naina Mukherjee, a recent alumnus.

But tight discipline, strict rules about attendance and penalty for latecomers and class-duckers keeps the 4,500 students on their toes. "There's nothing like an archetypal Xaverian," says a student. Certainly not in the all-star alumnus: scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose, educationists Rama-nanda Chatterjee and Ananda Mohan Chakraborty, politicians A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury and Amar Singh, business bigwigs L.N. Mittal, Aditya Birla and S.K. Birla, actors Anil Chatterjee and Utpal Dutt, and, more recently, even Saurav Ganguly.

In July when the admissions war really hots up in Kolkata, St Xavier's finds itself pitted against other, older institutions. But it always manages to hold its own. What's the secret? "Xavier's is so much a part of Kolkata," says Father Mathew "that if you take it away, the city will cease to be the same."

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