A university's achievements cannot be measured by its annual targets and quantifiable outcomes alone. Instead, it is the collective spirit of scholarship that characterises the self-imagination of a university - and the coordinated effort of both student and teaching communities towards that goal makes this possible. Kazi Nazrul University, despite its relative youth, has already sculpted out an intellectual legacy of deep learning and responsible research. In this, students, research scholars and teachers from the university have gone on to make a mark, both socially and academically.
The student demography at the university - with its specific focus on enabling social-economic mobility for first-generation learners - is adequate proof of the achieved expanse of higher education, along horizontal and vertical planes. KNU's unflinching commitment to enhancing 'access' and 'equity' within the educational sector is an policy-achievement, and the impact of this will play out as a substantive long-term investment in local-regional development.
The faculty members of KNU -- coming from diverse institutional backgrounds and traditions of intellectual training -- have garnered international reputation for the university through their research publications, journal articles, books and monographs. The intellectual work produced by the teaching community has not only found a global audience through some of the biggest publishing houses and university presses, but has also received praise and mention by scholars from across the world. The research zeal that animates the university's ethos might be evidenced in the range of international fellowships won by its faculty and research scholars over the years -- Fullbright Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship, Charles Wallace Fellowship, New School for Social Research Fellowship, and several others. Alongside this, students and M.Phil./Ph.D scholars of KNU have continued to prepare themselves for a life of academic pursuit, with success rates in UGC-NET/JRF examinations showing a steep rise every successive year.
Teachers at Kazi Nazrul University have believed in the power of forging alliances with the larger community on social and intellectual terms. To that end, the faculty from different departments continue to lead and work on research projects as well as national/international collaborations -- funded by the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), University Grants Commission (UGC), Raza Foundation, Government of West Bengal, etc. Both Pilot and Major project grants have come to the university, through the untiring efforts of its teachers. The latter have also participated and contributed their work to global consortiums, through attendance at international conferences at home and abroad.
KNU has been a pioneer in providing institutional support to a plethora of research centres opened on campus -- namely, Centre for Counselling and Positive Psychology, Centre for Critical Social Inquiry, Centre for Theatre Studies and Performance, Centre for Studies in Ethics and Socio-Political Philosophy, Centre for Studies in the History and Culture of Bengal, etc. These Centres have been currently working as interdisciplinary research platforms, providing an opportunity for dialogues across departments and collaborative research spanning issues of immediate contemporary interest. Supported by the university's own resources, regular academic activities -- like seminars, workshops and invited plenary sessions -- are organised on behalf of these centres to foster the spirit of a university without intellectual borders.
