From correspondents in West Bengal, India, 02:00 PM IST

Kolkata - Presidency College, which has produced several well known personalities like freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose, film maestro Satyajit Ray and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, moved a step closer to autonomy after the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) gave it the highest rating.

Four West Bengal government-run colleges were accredited by the NAAC for the first time Sunday, with Presidency College getting the highest rating of A+.

Placing its report at a meeting in Bangalore, the NAAC executive council praised Presidency College for its outstanding performance in the field of research and the academic excellence of its various departments.

Presidency, where West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya also studied, is under active consideration for autonomy. Bhattacharya himself is supporting the move, rising above the otherwise Left Front's stranglehold on educational institutions in the state.

The committee, in its report to the state government, strongly recommended that it take immediate steps for granting autonomous status to Presidency College.

While Presidency bagged the second-best grade, A+, scoring between 90 and 95 points out of a total of 100, Lady Brabourne and Bethune College of Kolkata got A, obtaining 85 to 90 points. Bidhannagar Government College got B+, scoring between 80 and 85 points.

Fourteen colleges from Bengal, 10 of which are Calcutta University (CU) affiliates, were given the NAAC accreditation.

'We are extremely satisfied with the performance of our institutions, particularly Presidency. We immediately need to initiate the process of further development of the institutions,' Suranjan Das, CU pro vice-chancellor (academic affairs), said.

'We are proud of NAAC's high praise for Presidency College in the inspection report.'

Presidency was established as Hindu College on Jan 20, 1817 in Kolkata, the then capital of British India. It was renamed Presidency in 1855 to admit non-Hindu students and since then it has been receiving accolades for its academic excellence.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)