St Xavier’s College (Autonomous) will be upgrading all its undergraduate departments to postgraduate studies within the next three years as part of its Vision 2025 roadmap, Principal Father Dominic Savio said at the 15th Convocation of the institute.

The college plans to introduce PhD programmes in Bengali and English very soon followed by commencement of doctoral studies in all the departments, he said on Saturday. Savio said the construction of the new campus of the College near EM Bypass will begin shortly as part of Vision 2025 to be realised in three years.

"This is the third campus of the college, after its Kolkata campus and Raghabpur rural campus in South 24-Parganas district housing a state-of-the-art hub. "It will house the Mass Communication and Multimedia department, the community radio station, a modern incubation centre for facilitating startups and modern research facilities for Science PG departments," the principal said.

The college is going to launch its 'School for Gender Studies' from the next month at the rural campus at Raghabpur.

"The aim is to empower girl students with knowledge and self-confidence and also to facilitate awareness among their family members, neighbours and others with regard to gender equality. The centre also has a plan to start with peer reviewed journals on the subject both in English and Bengali with ISSN numbers," he said.

Calcutta University Vice-Chancellor Prof Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee presided over the convocation. Eminent cardiac surgeon and Xaverian Dr Kunal Sarkar was presented this year’s Nihil Ultra Award for his outstanding contribution to the society, especially during the corona period.

Nine PhD, 352 PG, 2,539 UG and 95 BEd students were awarded their degrees in this year’s convocation which was held at the campus, the first convocation held physically at an educational institution in the city in past two years.

Father Savio mentioned that as a part of the expansion plan, the rural campus at Raghabpur is also being upgraded to bridge the rural-urban divide among the students in the society. Other than new PG departments, the Raghabpur campus is also going to provide vocational courses designed to meet the needs of the local populace. A centre for Skill Development is also being planned at the Raghabpur Campus to impart technical skills to the local rural residents.