DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Establishment:
The academic journey of the Department of English coincides with the first academic session of Durgapur Government College: 1970 – 71. A veteran department believes in collaborative work in the teaching-learning process as in all other activities of the department. The department encourages and accommodates heterogeneity, the diversity making rich contributions towards its mental expansion. The Department of English started functioning in the academic session 1970 – 1971, which was also the first academic session of Durgapur Government College established in 1969.
Programmes Offered
The Department presently offers the following programmes under the affiliation of Kazi Nazrul University:
Add on Courses
The Department has also started offering Add on Courses for students of all Departments since the academic session 2024-2025.
Teaching, Learning and Evaluation
The teaching in the department commenced with the joining of three teachers: Prof. Bimal Kumar Banerjee, Prof. Sambhu Nath Banerjee and Prof. Haripada Bhattacharya. Prof. Bimal Kumar Banerjee acted as the first Head of the Department of English. Other Heads of the early 70-s were Prof. Pradyumna Mitra and Prof. Haripada Bhattacharya. The first class in the department was taken by Prof. Haripada Bhattacharya. The Department of English, offering Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree (Honours and General),played a key role in the entire Durgapur and the adjoining region as no other institution existed at that time to cater to the needs of those aspiring to study English literature at the undergraduate level. The first batch of students pursuing the Honours course in English comprised eleven students, five female students and six male students. Of the eleven students, four qualified as Honours graduates. Dr. Tanuka Das and Dr. Devika Bose were the first lady teachers to join the Department of English in 1981. Renowned teachers like Gouri Prasad Ghosh, Nilagrib Deb Roy, Debabrata Chatterjee, Tanuka Das, Devika Bose, Chandreyee Niyogi have served the department. The department was initially affiliated to the University of Burdwan. The college is now affiliated to Kazi Nazrul University since June 25, 2015. Since English is taught to all the students in the college, the actual student strength of the department would include the entire first year registered students of the college (Humanities, Science and Commerce). Several innovative teaching strategies are adopted by the teachers which include use of power-point presentations, role play by students, wall magazines, expert lectures, projects, assignments etc to cater to the educational needs of the students. Quite a good number of students have been placed in various administrative and academic posts. Some of the distinguished alumni of the Department are Prof. Basudeb Hazra, Former Head of the Department of English, Michael Madhusudan College, Durgapur; Santanu Niyogi, Associate Professor of English, Raniganj Girls College, Raniganj; Arpita Chattaraj, Associate Professor, Department of English, Burdwan University; Anindya Sengupta, Assistant Professor in Film Studies, Jadavpur University. Several other students of this department are serving different schools, colleges and other institutions across the country and abroad. The faculty, besides being on several sub-committees of the Teachers Council, is engaged in various examination related works at the undergraduate and at the postgraduate level. Faculty members have also served as members of Board of Studies(undergraduate and postgraduate level), and as members of Syllabus Committees of the University instrumental in introducing vital changes in the English syllabus of the Honours course.