LAKHIMPUR: The North Lakhimpur College (Autonomous), the first autonomous college in the Northeast Region, was upgraded to a university on Thursday. The academic institution, which is esteemed as the ‘Temple of Knowledge of North Assam, received the dignity of North Lakhimpur University as soon as the autumnal session of the Assam Legislative Assembly passed the North Lakhimpur University Bill, 2023, to make it an Act.
Education Minister Dr. Ranoj Pegu introduced the bill concerned in the Assembly on the very first day of the autumnal session on September 12, along with five more university bills and several amendment bills, thereby reshaping the educational landscape of the state. These legislative moves have aimed to strengthen the higher education system and cater to the evolving academic needs of the students in the state.
According to the Act concerned, the proposed university will constitute and establish a multidisciplinary teaching, research-oriented, affiliated, and semi-residential university by upgrading the existing North Lakhimpur College (autonomous) into North Lakhimpur University and by establishing an open and distance learning centre under this university. The University will have power to provide for instruction in such branches of learning. including the Open and Distance Learning (ODL.) courses as the University may think fit and to make provision for research to secure advancement, diffusion and extension of knowledge in all spheres of learning, to establish within the university area or outside that area such field stations and specialized laboratories and such other units for research and instruction as are necessary for the furtherance of each objects, to affiliate with it or admit to any of its privileges or to recognize for any purpose, either in whole or in part, any college or institution or members or student thereof, on such terms and conditions as may, from time to time, be prescribed, and to withdraw such affiliation, privileges or recognitions; and to incorporate any Provincialised College of the State as a Constituent College of the University with prior approval of the Government of Assam.
With this landmark achievement, the college authority, academic and administrative staff, present students, alumni, and well-wishers have expressed abundant happiness. Lakhimpur MLA Manab Deka, taking to social media platforms, thanked Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Education Minister Dr. Ranoj Pegu for passing the North Lakhimpur University Bill in the Assembly on Thursday. He expected that the North Lakhimpur University would play a pivotal role in spreading quality education in the state. He congratulated the principal and the whole family of the college for the historic achievement. Principal Dr. Biman Chandra Chetia thanked all who had made tremendous contributions to establish and shape the college.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while inaugurating the North East Education Conclave organised by the Education Department at the Sankardev Education and Research Foundation on November 21, 2021, declared that the North Lakhimpur College (autonomous) would be upgraded to a university. He also said that the process for upgrading the college to a university would be completed within the next two years.
The North Lakhimpur College was established on July 3, 1952. In 2012, the college was accredited with an ‘A’ grade by the NAAC with a CGPA of 3.08. On May 30, 2013, North Lakhimpur College received a letter from the University Grants Commission granting it the status of an autonomous college. Since its establishment, the college has been spreading the light of wisdom with a motto: “Let noble thoughts come from all directions.” The college was the fruit of the efforts and zeal of a core group of far-sighted people in particular and the people of this vast region in general. The college offers major (honours) courses in almost all customary subjects in the arts and sciences streams. It has 21 departments. The college accommodates nearly 1,000 students in the undergraduate courses, and it receives interstate students. The college offers courses in Higher Secondary (Arts and Science), Bachelor’s Degree (Arts and Science), Computer Science Degree (BCA), PG Diploma Courses, Plant Tissue-Culture Postgraduate Diploma, Disaster Management Postgraduate Diploma, Certificate Courses on Human Rights Diploma, Electronics, Appliance Repairing Diploma, Herbal Plantation Diploma, Foundation Courses, UGC Career-Oriented Courses, etc. The college also offers the courses of the Indira Gandhi National Open University and Krishna Kanta Handique State Open University in the respective study centres of the open universities in the college. In the current year, the college was recognised to teach the four-yearlong BA-B.Ed. course along with Tyagbir Hem Baruah College. No other college in the state could achieve the quality needed to get recognition to teach the course. On Thursday evening, a function was organised on the college campus to celebrate the achievement of being upgraded to a university.
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