– Mita Mukherjee

The Bengal government will hold a special Assembly session on September 10 to introduce and pass a bill that will allow the government to transfer “experienced teachers” working in state-aided universities to new universities, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said.

The bill was approved by the state cabinet on Monday.

In Bengal, teachers working in Central government-run colleges who are appointed through the state public service commission are transferred from one such college to another. This system is not practised in case of state university teachers.

Under the existing system, individual universities appoints teachers on their own and not through any teacher recruitment body like the state college service commission or the public service commission.

“We will soon introduce a bill… inter-university teacher transfer bill. The state cabinet approved the bill at its meeting. It will be sent to the governor for nod as per the procedure before being introduced in the Assembly. Teachers and non- teaching employees can be transferred across universities”, the chief minister said after the cabinet meeting.

The bill will be formally called the West Bengal Universities and Colleges Administration and Regulation Amendment Bill, 2026.

The proposed bill, however, has raised questions among academics and in-service university teachers.

Several teachers said individual universities appoint teachers on the basis of the statues framed by the respective universities where there is no provision of transfer.

“Our job is not transferable. Vice- chancellors are the appointing authority of university teachers. The service conditions of the teachers of all universities are not the same. Moreover, how can a vice- chancellor of one university transfer a teacher to another university. The state government will have to clarify these technical problems that can arise if the bill is passed,” a professor of a university said.

Some senior professors said this kind of transfer will affect university researches.

“In universities research projects are granted to senior teachers by government and other agencies. Several teachers get the research grant on the basis of the availability of the laboratory and other facilities in a particular university. The proposed inter- university transfer bill will affect researches. What will happen to ongoing research projects? A teacher doing a research on a particular subject in a particular university may not get the same facilities in another university where she or he gets transferred. The government must explain these problems. This bill will also take away the autonomy of the universities,” Tarun Naskar, a former professor of Jadavpur University told EducationWorld.

Some academics feared that the proposed legislation can be misused by the authorities as a punitive measure to those teachers who oppose and criticise government policies.

During the Left regime, many stalwart teachers who opposed the policies of the then government were transferred from reputable government colleges like Presidency College (now Presidency University) to lesser known colleges in the districts.

A professor of Jadavpur University said one of the main intentions of the BJP government to bring the proposed legislation was to transfer teachers of their university to other institutions. Many Jadavpur University teachers had opposed and protested the recent vandalism on the campus led by the ABVP.

The chief minister, however, said on Monday that one of the aim of the bill was to ensure that “experienced teachers” go to the new universities to share their expertise to help such institutes turn into centres of excellence. ” We want one state one policy… Our aim is to enable every university’ to grow as a centre of excellence.”

Also read: Bengal B.Ed colleges under scanner