Acharya Prafulla Chandra College (APC College)

Acharya Prafulla Chandra College

Govt. Sponsored | NAAC Accredited A Grade College with CGPA 3.23

Affiliated to West Bengal State University

Acharya Prafulla Chandra College (APC College)

Achievement

Acharya Prafulla Chandra College was founded on 16th August, 1960 under the Dispersal Scheme – with the joint participation of the State and Central Governments and  named after the eminent Visionary Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy. The college from its nascent state has tried to propagate the ideas of this great man and has been embodied in our motto - “Service, Knowledge and Sacrifice”.

This college was accredited with Grade ‘A’ securing CGPA 3.23 in the year 2016. This Institution  strives to attain a pre-eminent position in the field of Higher Education and has been taking taken part in in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) since 2019. The college can boast of success stories in all the relevant spheres.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Academic performance of students in University examinations have been consistently good with University Rank-holders in multiple subjects across the years. Many of our students became University toppers and a sizable number of them established themselves in academic institutions in India and abroad as well as in reputed industries. A good number of students have been awarded  Ph.D. degree from different national and international Universities like Ecole Polytechnique, University of Sheffield, Boston University and Chang Gung University. Our Alumni can be found in premier Research Institutions of the state, country and abroad. Many students have cleared national and state competitive examination such as NET, SET, and WBCSSC etc. and engaged in schools, colleges and government organizations. Each year a number of students are selected as junior software developer at organizations like CTS, TCS (TCS-IGNITE), Wipro, CTS, IBM and alike. A fair number of students are also placed in different sectors securing Govt. jobs, schools and engineering colleges, IT jobs, jobs in banking sectors etc.

Progression of Post Graduate students to higher studies in last few years:

Department No. of students
Qualified in NET Qualified in SET Qualified in GATE/JEST Pursuing Ph. D. Ph. D. awarded
Microbiology 15 05 21 30 15
Computer Science 09 01 20 02 00
Electronics 08 01 14 14 08
Chemistry 18 03 26 03 15
Physics 12 04 22 12 11

The college has a registered alumni association named ‘Acharya Prafulla Chandra College Alumni Association’ with registration no. S0018677 of 2021-2022.

SOCIAL OUTREACH

In keeping with our Vision statement of holistic development the college strives to inculcate a sense of social responsibility. National Service Scheme (NSS) unit of this college has earned the Best Programme Officer (Dr. Sunanda Biwas) and the Best Volunteer (Sri Sudhangshu Dey) awards in 2021 among all universities in West Bengal. Besides the NSS wing , teachers and students have contributed towards  relief work during Amphan, Aila and Yaas (among them two relief work done by our college individually and one with East Calcutta college). Beside this college has raised a fund and donated to the Chief Minister’s relief fund towards relief to Amphan affected people. Relief materials were distributed to a section of affected people in Nazat village in Sandeshkhali, Sunderban. The college has raised a fund to donate to the relief fund of the Govt. of West Bengal in order to support the battle against Covid-19 pandemic situation. A relief materials distribution programme was organized in the college by the students, teachers and non-teaching employees of the college. Many poor and backward families of the locality who were severely hurt by the pandemic situation attended the programme and relief materials were distributed among them. During COVID period santisers – made in college laboratory were distributed in the locality.

In a bid to imbibe values and concern for the less priviledged sections of the society the NSS and outreach program committee involves students in conduction of health camps, literacy programs and awareness campaigns in the surrounding villages.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

In recognition of its stature the college is considered as a Nodal centre for district level events .Recently hosted the ‘Inter College State Sports & Games Championship 2018-19’ (North 24 PGS District) organized by the Education Directorate, Govt. of West Bengal. The college has also hosted the celebration of the Bicentennial birth anniversary of Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar (North 24 Parganas District) in 2019-20 organized by the Higher Education Directorate, Government of West Bengal. Our perception in society is reflected by recognition from the private sector also. Zee-24 Ghanta, a leading news network bestowed on the college the Education Excellence Award 2019.

TEACHING LEARNING AND INFRSTRUCTURE

At present the college is offering UG courses affiliated to the West Bengal State University through altogether 27 subjects besides offering 8 Post Graduate courses.

Our college having the distinction of being the undergraduate college in this state.to with respect to introduction of some of the courses at the postgraduate level. Besides, the college has a local chapter of NPTEL and NIELIT to enable parallel certification for students. The Institute of Computer Engineers (India) runs a computer centre named ‘APC College Computer Centre’ for all categories of students from inside and outside the institution. The courses here are tailor-madeto meet the requirements of enterprising boys and girls. The College has opened a study centre of Netaji Subhas Open University (NSOU) to provide opportunity of distant learning to those students who cannot attend regular classes in traditional colleges.

With a view to sharing academic infrastructure and human resource our college has signed MOU with institutions of our district  like East Calcutta Girls’ College, Sorojini Naidu College and Panihati College.

All the departments of the college have  requisite classrooms and laboratories. In addition to the department of Computer Science, departments like Physics, Electronics, Mathematics, Statistics etc. have dedicated computer laboratories. Facilities for IT enabled teaching-learning have been developed there in the college. An e-room is attached to the library where students can access e-books and journals. Seminar Hall and Lecture rooms are also there in the college. There are separate Departmental Libraries from where students can borrow books according to their demand.

Total number of students in the college is approximately 4,800 with a Female: Male gender ratio greater than 1. The college has an impressive faculty strength with one hundred and thirty full-time teachers approximately fifty percent of whom are Ph.D holders.

The college has 7.2 acres land in its main campus and another 0.62 acres of land in the second campus. The total built up area is about 8.56 acres. There is a two storied Women’s hostel with accommodation capacity of 80 girl students and an 80 bedded Central Hostel for OBC Boys under BCW department, Govt. of West Bengal. The college has also undertaken projects like rain-water harvesting (already functional) and an integrated water treatment plant which will be coming up next year. Our proposal for a grid-connected solar Power plant has also been approved and will come up in the coming year.

Other infrastructural facilities include broadband connection to different departments, a well- stocked library with subscription to e-books (Pearson) and e-journals (Springer Nature) besides the collection of e-books and journals from INFLIBNET, an auditorium with a capacity 750, indoor Multi-gym with 16 station gym equipment, a basketball court, a cricket practice pitch and  a composite playground of national standard in our campus for outdoor games facilities to our students. This play ground is used for football coaching and practicing for different age group come from different parts of this district. This playground is also used by different schools in this locality for holding their annual sports events. A dedicated building for Student’s canteen.

Keeping in mind the gender ratio and students basic need 4 sanitary vending machines have been installed in women’s hostel and college building

The following items can be mentioned as important component of the green initiative.

  • Garden: There are several well-maintained gardens within the college campus. In the main campus, a total area of 1316 sq.m. area covered by gardens.
  • Medicinal plants: There is a garden of medicinal plants, named ‘Charak Udyan’of 320 sq.m. area.
  • Water body: A water body of 1936 sq.m. is situated inside the main campus. The sides of the water body are well-maintained.
  • Nursery: A flower nursery of 386 sq.m. area is developed adjacent to the water body.
  • Water harvesting tank: Adjacent to the women’s hostel, there is a water harvesting project ‘Neeradhaar’. The rooftop of the Women's Hostel is used as the catchment area.
  • One Green generator of 82.5 KVA power is installed in the campus. Another green generator of 160 KVA is to be procured very soon.
  • One solar power panel and one water treatment plant are proposed under RUSA funding.

Automatic Weather Monitoring Station, a unit under the supervision of Geography Department (devices are tested and certified by IMD, Pune) provides very important climate data like temperature, heat index, rainfall, humidity, dew point, air pressure, wind speed and direction, amount UV of radiation, sunshine amount, evapotranspiration, time of sunrise and sunset, moon size (from new moon to full moon) and so on.

The college has a well-maintained nursery to augment the academics as well as to maintain the overall in-house ambience. College have participated in many flower exhibition shows in many places like West Begal State Assembly, New Barrackpore Municipality, Panihati Municipality, Budgebudge Municipality, Khardaha Municipality etc. and won prizes in several occasions.

STUDENT SUPPORT SCHEME

In consonance with our vision statement of inclusive growth and keeping in mind the socio-economic profile of our student, the college has a robust support scheme with contribution from all stakeholder, viz. Administration, faculty and students. The college has introduced Student Safety Insurance Scheme with United India Insurance Company from 11.12.2015 for UG students.

With a noble view to assisting the meritorious but economically marginalized students of the college the Students’ Union has undertaken a scheme, ‘Medha Britti Prakalpa’ by raising a fund of its own.. The highest marks securing students of second year and third year classes of both B.A. and B.Sc. streams get a scholarship equivalent to six months’ college fees. Students’ Benevolent Fund aims at giving financial aids to poor and meritorious students and is funded by the teachers of this college. There are several endowment funds running in the college to encourage the students to achieve excellence in academics.

There is a corpus of 25 prizes from 13 Endowment Funds comprising of donations from different faculty members and college, which is used for award of a prize to the student securing highest marks in their discipline. The approx. total value of prizes given annually is Rs. 15000/-

Research and development

A number of teachers of this college are acting as supervisors for research scholars who are registered in Ph. D. programme in different universities. Some of the scholars have already been awarded the Ph. D. degree and the rest are pursuing. In some of the cases, the research work is performed in collaboration with various experts of other universities or institutions like Indian Statistical Institute, Jadavpur University, Calcutta University, Visva-Bharati University etc. A good number of our faculty are engaged in active research and guidance on different projects funded by the UGC, DST etc., approx. research grant sectioned of Rs 4410000/-. Besides organizing regular workshops and talks by distinguished academicians the college has also organized a number of International seminars.

The college has an active research cell with many of its faculties receiving grants from Central and State Govt. Agencies. The college has MoU with Dark Star Quantum Lab Inc., USA