University of Calcutta

The University of Calcutta (also known as Calcutta University) (Bengali: কলিকাতা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়) is a public university located in the city of Kolkata (previously Calcutta), India, founded on 24 January 1857. It was the first multidisciplinary modern university in South Asia, as the oldest institution to have university status, Senate of Serampore College (University), Serampore^[3] was granted freedom to grant degrees in theology only.

Within India it is recognized as a "Five Star University" and a "Centre with Potential for Excellence" by the University Grants Commission.^[2][4] Within all state Universities all over India, Calcutta University occupies the top rank in terms of the highest number students who cleared the PhD entrance eligibility exam in Science conducted by Central Govt (CSIR-UGC NET) to became eligible to pursue PhD studies with full Govt. Scholarship.^[5]

It is a state-government administered urban-based affiliating and research university. It has its central campus in College Street (called Ashutosh Shiksha Prangan). Its other campuses are in Rajabazar (called Rashbehari Shiksha Prangan), Ballygunge (called Taraknath Palit Shiksha Prangan), Alipore (called Sahid Khudiram Siksha Prangan), Hazra and South Sinthi.

History

Three Nobel laureates were associated with this university Rabindra Nath Tagore, C. V. Raman and Amartya Sen.^[6] The school was founded in 1857 while Lord Canning was the Governor General of India. Dr Fredrick John, the education secretary to the then British Government in India, first tendered a proposal to the British Government in London for the establishment of a university in Calcutta, similar to London University, to create an educated class that would help them rule India; at that time the plan failed to obtain the necessary approval. However, a proposal to establish two universities, one in Calcutta and the other in Bombay was later accepted in 1854 and the necessary authority was given. The Calcutta University Act came into force on 24 January 1857 and a 41-member Senate was formed as the policy making body of the university. When the university was first established it had a catchment area covering the area from Lahore to Rangoon (now in Myanmar) , and Ceylon, the largest of any Indian university.^[6]

The first Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University were Governor General Lord Canning and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sir James William Colvile, respectively.^[7] In 1858, Joddu Nath Bose and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay became the first graduates of the university.^[8] On 30 January 1858, the Syndicate of the Calcutta University started functioning.^[8] The first meeting of the Senate was held in the Council room of the Calcutta Medical College. A temporary office of the university was started in a few rented rooms in Camac Street. For several years afterwards the meetings of the Senate and Syndicate were held in a room of the Writers' building. 244 candidates appeared for the first entrance examination of the university, held in March 1857 in the town hall of Calcutta. In 1862, a decision was taken by the Senate to construct for the university a building of its own. Accordingly, the historical Senate Hall was constructed at a cost of Rs. 2,52,221/- and inaugurated on 12 March 1873 by holding the convocation of the university.

In 1857 Nawab Jassa Singh Ahluwalia Government College^[9] in Kapurthala , Punjab province of British India became one of the first colleges to be affiliated with University of Calcutta. Later many institutions came under its jurisdiction. Kadambini Ganguly and Chandramukhi Basu became the first female graduates of the country in 1882.^[8] The Honourable Justice Gooroodas Banerjee became the first Indian Vice-Chancellor of University of Calcutta in the year 1890.^[7] Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee was the Vice-Chancellor for four consecutive two-year terms (1906–1914) and a fifth two-year term (1921–23).

Campus

The university has several campuses spread over the city of Kolkata and its suburbs. The university also has many affiliated colleges spread over southern West Bengal. The main campus of the university, located on College Street, is spread over a small area of 2.7 acres (0.011 km²).^[10] The main campus is also known as the Asutosh Siksha Prangan, and contains Darbhanga Building, Asutosh Building, Hardinge Building, and the Centenary Building.^[11] The Rashbihari Siksha Prangan (also known as University College of Science and Technology or popularly Rajabazar Science College), located on Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, houses several scientific and technological departments, e.g., pure and applied chemistry, pure and applied physics, applied mathematics, psychology, physiology, biophysics and molecular biology, to name but a few.^[11] Taraknath Siksha Prangan (also known as University College of Science or Ballygunge Science College) on Ballygunge Circular Road in the southern part of the city houses the departments of agriculture, anthropology, biochemistry, botany, genetics and most notably geology among others.^[11] Sahid Khudiram Siksha Prangan at Behala houses the department of Archeology, Business Management, Political Science, Sociology and others. Other campuses are Hazra Road Campus, University Press And Book Depot, B. T. Road Campus, Viharilal College of Home Science Campus, University Health Service, Haringhata Campus, Dhakuria Lakes (University Rowing Club) and University Ground and Tent at Maidan.^[11] The university has a plan to create a "Techno Campus", to bring together the engineering and technical departments under one roof, in Salt Lake.^[12]

Academics

Research

Undergraduates enroll for a three-year program. Students are assigned to a major when they enter the university, and cannot change it later. Science and business disciplines are in high demand, as these fields are perceived to have better job opportunities. Most programs are organized by years, though some programs use a semester system. Most departments offer masters programs that are one or two years in duration. Research in the university is conducted in specialized institutes as well as individual departments, many of which have doctoral programs.

The university has 18 research centres, 710 teachers, 3000 non-teaching staff and 11,000 post-graduate students.^[1]

Faculties

Calcutta University has sixty five departments organised into eight faculties: Agriculture; Arts; Commerce, Social Welfare & Business Management; Education, Journalism and Library Science; Engineering & Technology; Fine Arts, Music and Home Science; Law and Science.^[13]

• Faculty of Agriculture: This faculty consists only one department called the Institute of Agricultural Science and offers post graduate courses on agronomy, horticulture, Genetics & Plant Breeding and Seed Science & Technology among others. The College of Agriculture was founded by professor Pabitra Kumar Sen, who was the Khaira Professor of Agriculture in early 1950s^[14]

• Faculty of Arts: This faculty consists of 21 departments offering courses on several Indian (including Sanskrit and Pali) and foreign languages, linguistics, ancient Indian history and culture, Islamic history and culture, South & South east Asian studies and many more.^[15]

• Faculty of Commerce, Social Welfare & Business Management: This faculty consists of the Departments of Business Management and Commerce.

• Faculty of Education, Journalism and Library Science: This faculty consists of three departments that offer courses on journalism and mass communication, library & information science.^[16]

• Faculty of Engineering & Technology: This faculty consists of the Departments of Applied Physics, Chemical Engineering, Chemical Technology, Computer Science and Engineering, Polymer Science and Technology, Radiophysics and Electronics, and a computer centre.^[17]

• Faculty of Fine Arts, Music and Home Science: This faculty consists of the Department of Home Science, which offers courses on subjects such as food and nutrition, human development, home science.^[18]

• The Faculty of Law: This faculty comprises only the Department of Law. Established in January 1909 as the "University College of Law," it was granted the status as the Department of Law of the university in February 1983.

• The Faculty of Science: This faculty has nineteen departments. This faculty offers courses on traditional science subjects like geology, geography, statistics, anthropology, biochemsitry, zoology, physics, chemistry, botany as well as subjects like biotechnology, microbiology, bioinformatics, marine science etc.^[19] The Department of Applied Physics was established in 1925 and is located in Anand Nagar. Presently studies are being conducted in Instrumentation Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Optics, and Opto-electronics.

Institutes

The university offers affiliation or outside support to a number of autonomous institutes and centres, based mostly in Calcutta, and one each in Bangalore and Patna. They are either under its direct control, or offer courses in collaboration with the university or are autonomous bodies that offer fellowships to students enrolled for a Ph.D. at the university. These institutes are Bose Institute, Calcutta, (outside support), Calcutta Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Calcutta, (outside support) Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, (outside support), Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Calcutta, (outside support), Institute of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, (outside support), Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, Calcutta, (affiliated), Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata, (affiliated), Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Calcutta, (outside support), Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, (outside support), Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Calcutta (partly affiliated), and S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Calcutta (outside support).

Colleges

The university has 153 affiliated colleges under its umbrella.^[20] A large number of college and institute were formerly affiliated to this prestigious institute.

Rankings

Internationally, the University of Calcutta was ranked 601+ in the QS World University Rankings^[21] and 115 in the QS Asian University Rankings in the year 2011.^[22] However, the university was ranked among the first 500 universities of the world for five consecutive years, from 2005 to 2009^[24]

In India, it was ranked 4 by the India Today Top India Universities of 2011.^[23]. As this list awarded the top three positions to central universities which are directly administered by the central government, the University of Calcutta is the foremost state government administered university in India.

Accreditation and recognition

The university enjoys both national and international repute:

• In 2001 the university was awarded the status of a ‘five star university’ by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council.^[4]
• On 8 December 2005, the Indian University Grants Commission declared Calcutta University as a ‘‘University with Potential for Excellence’’.^[25]
• The Manuscript Library at the university has been recently designated as a Manuscript Conservation Centre under the National Mission for Manuscripts, which was established in 2003.^[26]
• On 5 January 2010, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council awarded its highest grade of 'A' to the university.^[4]

Notable initiatives

Some of the notable initiatives associated with the university are:

• The first university located to the east of Suez to teach European classics, English literature, European and Indian philosophy and Occidental and Oriental history.
• The first medical school of Asia, the Calcutta Medical College, was established in 1835. Later it was affiliated to the university.
• The first college for women in India, the Bethune College, was established in 1879.
• The nation's first homeopathy college was established in 1880.
• The science college was established in 1917, the first in India.
• The first school for blind people in India was established in 1925.
• The first university museum in India, The Ashutosh Museum, was established in 1937.
• The Government Arts College was established in 1951.
• The Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM) was established in 1953 as the country's first management institute.

Notable alumni and faculty

For an extended list of the University's alumni, see the list of University of Calcutta people.

The university has produced many scientists, engineers, world leaders and Nobel laureates and teachers. As the oldest university of Bengal and India, many students of the subcontinent came to this university in the nineteenth century. Nobel laureates who either studied or worked here include Rabindranath Tagore, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, Ronald Ross, and Amartya Sen. The Academy Award winning director Satyajit Ray was also an alumnus of this university. So is the composer of the national song of India, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Some of the industrialists who studied in this university include Sir Rajen Mookerjee, Rama Prasad Goenka, Lakshmi Mittal, Aditya Birla and many other leading industrialists]. Scientists Jagadish Chandra Bose and his student Meghnad Saha, eminent Physicist and Mathematician Jamal Nazrul Islam were also students of this university.

Fatima Jinnah, one of the leaders of Pakistan Movement and Muhammad Ali Jinnah's sister also a graduated from this university. A nationalist leader, former president of the Indian National Congress, co-founder of the Indian National Army, and Head of State of the Provisional Government of Free India, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose studied in this university. Another President of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Banaras Hindu University, Madan Mohan Malaviya graduated in 1884 as a student of the University of Calcutta. Amongst the presidents of India who either studied or taught here were the first two presidents of the republic, Rajendra Prasad, and Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. The current Vice President of India, Mohammad Hamid Ansari studied here, as did a former Deputy Prime Minister of India, Jagjivan Ram. Many governors of Indian states have studied here, including the first Indian governor of Bihar and Orissa, Lord Satyendra Prasanno Sinha of Raipur, Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh, governor of the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, and Banwari Lal Joshi, the former governor of Delhi, and Meghalaya, and current governor of Uttarakhand. The former ruler of the Indian princely state of Coochbehar, Maharaja Nripendra Narayan Bhupa Bahadur as well as Patayet Sahib Maharajkumar Bhoopendra Narayan Singh Deo of Saraikela were also alumni of this university. Amongst its former students are one Prime Minister and five Chief Ministers of Bengal, including A.K. Fazlul Huq, Bidhan Chandra Ray, Prafulla Chandra Sen, Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Jyoti Basu, and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya; two Chief Ministers of Assam, Bishnu Ram Medhi and Gopinath Bordoloi and one Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Brington Buhai Lyngdoh. Heads of state from other countries associated with the University of Calcutta include four Presidents of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Mohammad Mohammadullah, Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem, Abdus Sattar, two Prime Ministers of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and Muhammad Mansur Ali, three Prime Ministers of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Bogra, Hussein Shaheed Suhrawardy, and Nurul Amin, the first Premier of Burma under British rule, Ba Maw, the current and first President of Nepal, Ram Baran Yadav and the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Nepal, Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala.

See also

• List of universities in India
• Universities and colleges in India
• Education in India
• Distance Education Council
• University Grants Commission (India)
• Aliah University, Kolkata

Notes

External links

• University of Calcutta - Official website
• Official Website Department of Business Management