Kolkata: The Presidency University mentor group, which has Nobel laureate Amartya Sen as advisor, on Thursday recommended the creation of a faculty capable of cutting-edge research to make the institution a centre of excellence.

The group was formed by West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee-led government to restore the lost glory of the institution, which was upgraded from a college to university last year by the erstwhile Left Front regime.

Mentor Group chief and Harvard University professor Sugata Bose handed over the 27-page preliminary report of the recommendations to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat, Writers' Buildings.

"Of all the recommendations, top priority is for recruitment of a diverse and outstanding faculty capable of cutting-edge research and high quality teaching. The salary scales offered must be similar to that of the IITs and IIMs.

"Science departments like physiology, botany and zoology must be merged to create one dynamic department of Biology, along with offering short courses that would be taught by distinguished visiting scholars," said Bose, a grand nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Among the other recommendations is enhancing the information technology capability of the campus.

Bose also said there was need for amending the Presidency University Act to concretise the recommendations.

"The recommendations we have made are crucial to the achievement of excellence. The relevant clauses of the Act should be amended to give a strong foundation to this process," said Bose.

Banerjee said her government would ensure that the recommendations were implemented.

"I have ordered the people concerned to go through the report thoroughly and do the needful to implement the recommendations made, including that of constituting a statutory authority."

Bose also said the committee would submit its next report coming January.

Established in 1817 as Hindu College, the institution cradled the Bengal Renaissance of the 19th Century and was christened Presidency College in 1855.

The college's alumni include Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Satyajit Ray, Marxist leader Jyoti Basu and scientist Satyendranath Bose.

India's first president Rajendra Prasad and former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee also studied in the college. IANS