Department of Microbiology

The Department of Microbiology was established in 2001 and has already shown its mark in the teaching in Microbiology. The Department received financial support for purchase of equipment and extension of building work from different funding agencies. Eighty percent students passing out from the Department have qualified CSIR-UGC-NET/GATE/SLET/ICMR-NET and many of them are working for their Ph. D. degree in different Universities and Research Institutes in India and abroad. Rest of the successful candidates of last four batches have been placed in different jobs in colleges and Industries.

The infrastructural facilities of the Microbiology classroom and laboratories have been developed with modern instruments, audio-visual system and computer facilities. The Department has already developed its infrastructure with some sophisticated equipments like, fermentor, UV- vis spectrophotometer, PCR thermocycler, ELISA Reader, Gel-doc system, BOD chamber, cold centrifuge and other essential equipments required for conducting research and practical classes.

Course offered :

The pace of advancement of the discipline and its societal relevance enhanced impressively in the context of scope and relevance of the subject in the different fields of applied microbiology with the application of biotechnology and genetic engineering. However, the inter-disciplinary approach of the subject is imperative in the present scenario. The University of Kalyani felt such importance and proposed to start the Microbiology course at post-graduate level from 2001. The cooperation of the teachers of the interacting Departments of the University has been ensured, so as to bring together all the relevant disciplines in a common platform to impart this multidisciplinary course.

Microbiology has taken a unique position in respect of basic and applied aspects of food and dairy products, environment, agriculture, various industries and medical and public health.

The course would help the aspirant graduates in getting a broad based knowledge about theoretical and applied aspects of different disciplines of microbiology in general and its frontier areas in particular. It is aimed at offering high quality training and generating expertise in the frontier areas of microbial technology, and to provide appreciative atmosphere to the bright young talents. The course includes inter-alia, collaborative efforts with different institutes, industries, clinical laboratories and other agencies. Hence, the post-graduate course may open multi-channel opportunity of employment and entrepreneurship.

The Post–Graduate course in Microbiology, recognized by UGC and Government of West Bengal, was offered for the first time in the academic session of 2001-2003. Since 2004 the course has been renamed as Microbiology & Microbial Technology with updated syllabi.

The course comprises of 4 semesters in two academic years.

Student intake

Sixteen (16) students:
General : 11 students (at least 1 each from Honours Graduates in Botany, Chemistry, Physiology, Zoology, Molecular Biology/ Biotechnology and Biochemistry; and 5 from the Microbiology Honours Graduates).
Reserved Category : 5 from any subject as cited in eligibility criteria.

If vacancy arises candidate from respective wait-listed subject merit list may be admitted in order of merit; in case of non-availability of eligible candidate from subject merit list candidate from thecomposite merit list may be admitted in order of merit.
Eligibility

Honours graduates (10 + 2 + 3 system) with at least 50% marks in Microbiology/ Botany/ Zoology/ Chemistry/ Physiology/ Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology and/or Biotechnology Honours from any recognized University or Institute. Honours graduates other than Chemistry/ Biochemistry shall have Chemistry as a general subject in degree course.

Admission Test

All the eligible applicants will have to sit in an admission test. The medium of instructions and examination shall be in English. Admission test will be of 75 minutes with 100 full marks. The questions will be objective type (Chemistry portion - B.Sc. general level; Biology, Physics, Mathematics, Physiology, Biochemistry and Microbiology portions -Basic/ H.S. level).

Admission

Candidates will be admitted according to the separate merit listprepared for each subject from the weighted average of the marks (in percentage) obtained in the Honours subject of the B.Sc. examination (50%), in the admission test (40%) and in H.S or its equivalent examination (10%). If students from any of the above disciplines are not available, the seat(s) will be filled in accordance to the order of merit in the composite merit list prepared taking all the candidates of all the subjects as mentioned earlier. If a candidate fails to secure 45% in weighted average of the marks as stated above, he/she will not be eligible for admission. If any vacancy arises in the General category, the vacancy will be filled up either from the merit list of the concerned subject or from the composite merit list (if there is no available student of the concerned subject). The admission in the Reserved Category will be from the composite merit list of such candidates, irrespective of their Honours subject in B.Sc. Course as mentioned in the eligibility part.