Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata)
is a second major
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...
state aided
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...
located in
College Street College Street may refer to:
*College Street (Kolkata)
*College Street (Toronto)
* College Street (Sydney)
*College Street (York)
College Green is an open space in the city centre of York, England.
History
The green lies within the historic pr ...
,
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affiliated to
University of Calcutta.
Established in 1817, it is the oldest college in India (in Asia as well). It was formerly known as Hindu College and then Presidency College and now Presidency University.
The institution was elevated to university status in 2010 after functioning as a top constituent college of the
University of Calcutta for about 193 years. The university had its bicentenary celebrations in 2017.
In its first cycle as a university, Presidency received A grade with a score of 3.04/4.00 by the
NAAC. Presidency has been recognized as an "Institute of National Eminence" by the
UGC. It appeared in the inaugural list of top 50 institutions of
NIRF rankings in 2016. However, NIRF rankings in 2017 and 2018 excluded universities like Presidency University which taught only science and humanities but not engineering, commerce, agriculture etc.
History
With the creation of the Supreme Court of Calcutta in 1773 many
Hindus of
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
showed an eager interest in learning the English language.
David Hare, in collaboration with
Raja
''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The title has a long history in history of South Asia, South Asia and History of ...
Radhakanta Deb had already taken steps to introduce English language education in Bengal. Babu Buddinath Mukherjee advanced the introduction of English as a medium of instruction further by enlisting the support of Sir
Edward Hyde East,
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Fort William, who called a meeting of 'European and Hindu Gentlemen' at his house in May 1816. The purpose of the meeting was to "discuss the proposal to establish an institution for giving a liberal education to the children of the members of the Hindu Community". The proposal was received with unanimous approbation and a donation of over Rs. 100, 000 was promised for setting up the new college.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy showed full support for the scheme, but chose not to come out in support of the proposal publicly for fear of "alarming the prejudices of his orthodox countrymen and thus marring the whole idea".
The college was formally opened on Monday, 20 January 1817 with 20 'scholars'. The foundation committee of the college, which oversaw its establishment, was headed by
Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The control of the institution was vested in a body of two Governors and four Directors. The first Governors of the college were
Maharaja Tejchandra Bahadur of
Burdwan and Gopee Mohan Thakoor. The first Directors were
Gopi Mohun Deb
Gopi Mohun Deb (1798-1847)A Biographical Sketch of David Hare - by Peary Chand Mitra, Gauranga Gopal Sengupta - 1979 Page 176 was one of scions the Shovabazar Raj family, a noted philanthropist educationist and foremost leader of Calcutta's Hind ...
of Sobhabazar, Joykissen Sinha, Radha Madhab Banerjee, and Gunganarain Doss. Buddinath Mukherjee was appointed as the first Secretary of the college. The newly established college admitted Hindu students only from affluent and upper caste families.
At first, the classes were held in a house belonging to Gorachand Bysack of Garanhatta (later renamed 304, Chitpore Road), which was rented by the college. In January 1818 the college moved to 'Feringhi Kamal Bose's house' which was located nearby in Chitpore.
[This building is a historic one because Raja Ram Mohan Roy inaugurated his ]Brahma
Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp ...
Sabha there and Alexander Duff of the Scottish Missionary Board started his educational establishment, the General Assembly's Institution
Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in ...
there as well a few years later in 1830. From Chitpore, the college moved to
Bowbazar and later to the building that now houses the
Sanskrit College on
College Street College Street may refer to:
*College Street (Kolkata)
*College Street (Toronto)
* College Street (Sydney)
*College Street (York)
College Green is an open space in the city centre of York, England.
History
The green lies within the historic pr ...
.
Departments and Courses
1
Bengali2
English3
Mathematics4) Statistics
5) History
6) Geography
7) Geology
8) Life Science
9) Physics
10) Chemistry
11) Economy
12) Sociology
13
Political Science14) Philosophy
15) Performing Arts
16) Biotechnology
17) Hindi
* Institute of Health Sciences
* School of Astrophysics
Transformation to university
In 1972, an unsigned article was released by the faculty members of the college demanding that the college be given full university status. It is an open secret that the author of the article was
Dipak Banerjee, the legendary economics professor of the college. The state government, then under the chief ministership of
Siddhartha Shankar Ray, showed the willingness to listen to the demands of the faculty members, but it was still too early to grant full autonomy to the college. In 2007, the state government, under the chief ministership of
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee also known as Buddha Babu (born 1 March 1944) is an Indian Communist politician and a former member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He served as the 7th Chief Minister of West Bengal from 200 ...
and Higher Education ministership of Sudarshan Raychaudhuri, appointed a seven-member committee, under the chairmanship of
Chittatosh Mookerjee. The other members of the committee included Ashes Prasad Mitra,
Barun De,
Bimal Jalan and Subimal Sen, to look into the possibility of upgrading the status of the college. The report of the committee suggested that the state government, while granting partial autonomy to the college, should first create a large corpus grant before granting university status to the college. It also recommended the creation of more professorships, lecturerships and scholarships for meritorious students, thus strengthening the college.
In 2009, the Governing Body of the college unanimously adopted the proposal that the college should be given full university status. On 16 December 2009, the Government of West Bengal tabled a bill in the Bidhan Sabha titled the Presidency University Act, 2009, in which the West Bengal Legislative Assembly granted full university status to the college. The bill stated that once the college becomes a full state-aided university it will be renamed Presidency University.
The new logo of the Presidency University has been created by Sabyasachi Dutta (সব্যসাচী দত্ত) as reported in a letter to the Editor of
Anandabazar Patrika on 1 April 2013.
On 19 March 2010, the West Bengal Government passed the Presidency University Bill, 2009 in the State Legislative Assembly.
On 7 July 2010, the Governor of West Bengal,
M K Narayanan
Mayankodu Kelath Narayanan (born 10 March 1934) is a former Indian Police Service officer. He was National Security Adviser of India from 2005 to 2010, assuming the role after the demise of his predecessor Jyotindra Nath Dixit in January 2005. ...
gave his assent to the Presidency University Bill. On 23 July 2010, the Government of West Bengal published the gazette notification completing all the legal formalities for presidency to become a full university.
Amiya Bagchi was given the responsibility of chairing a committee set up to select and appoint the first vice-chancellor of the university.
Amita Chatterjee, a retired professor of philosophy at
Jadavpur University, was appointed as the first Vice-Chancellor of Presidency University on 5 October 2010.
In 2011, Higher Education Minister
Bratya Basu suggested that a mentor group, along the lines of the Nalanda mentor group, would be formed to oversee the work of the university. At the beginning of June 2011, the chief minister of West Bengal,
Mamata Banerjee, announced that a committee would be formed with
Amartya Sen
Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, economi ...
as its chief mentor and Harvard-based
Sugata Bose as its chairman to oversee the running of the college and perform the task of appointing all its officials and faculty members. The Presidency mentor group
also includes as its members 2019 Economics
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...
winner
Abhijit Banerjee,
Ashoke Sen, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya,
Nayanjot Lahiri,
Himadri Pakrashi
Himadri may refer to:
* Great Himalayas, one of the ranges of the Himalayas
* Himadri (research station), Indian research station in the Arctic
See also
*Himalaya (disambiguation)
The Himalayas or Himalaya are a mountain range in Asia.
Himalay ...
,
Rahul Mukerjee
Rahul Mukerjee is an Indian academic and statistician. He is a National Science Chair of the Government of India, hosted by the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, after his superannuation from the same institute in 2021 as a professor in t ...
and
Isher Judge Ahluwalia,
Swapan Kumar Chakravorty
Swapan Kumar Chakravorty (Bengali: স্বপন কুমার চক্রবর্তী; 29 July 1954 – 25 September 2021) was an Indian academic who was a distinguished Professor of Humanities at the Presidency University, Kolkata. H ...
.
Sukanta Chaudhuri
Sukanta Chaudhuri (born 1950) is an Indian literary scholar, now Professor Emeritus at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He was educated at Presidency College, Kolkata and the University of Oxford. He taught at Presidency College from January 1973 ...
resigned from the committee in 2012.
In October 2011,
Malabika Sarkar
Malabika Sarkar is an Indian academic, former Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University, and a former Vice Chancellor of Presidency University, Kolkata. She was the first Dean of Faculty & Research at Ashoka and was the Principal Academic Advisor b ...
, formerly Professor of English at Jadavpur University, was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Presidency University. During her term as Vice-Chancellor more than 150 faculty members - Presidency University's first faculty - were recruited and joined. The university's first officers and the first group of non-teaching staff were also recruited. A new logo was created by an alumnus, infrastructural projects were initiated and the Presidency University Vice-Chancellor's Fund for Excellence was set up. In December 2012, UGC recognized Presidency University as an Institution of National Eminence. MOUs for international collaboration with Trinity College, Dublin; Groningen University, Netherlands; and D'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po, Paris) were signed. Presidency University's first convocation was held on 22 August 2013 and the foundation stone for Presidency's second campus at Rajarhat was unveiled by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on 6 February 2014. Presidency's First Statutes were completed. Sarkar's tenure as Vice-Chancellor ended in May 2014.
After Sarkar's tenure expired, a new search committee was built by the state government and the Chancellor, i. e. Governor of West Bengal. The search committee published a list of three Professors and sent it to the Chancellor. The first person in the list Sabyasachi Bhattacharya refused to join the administration and chose to teach at Presidency as the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Distinguished Chair Professor in the Department of Physics. Ultimately the position went to
Anuradha Lohia
Anuradha Lohia ( Fatehpuria) is an Indian molecular parasitologist who works in infectious disease. She is currently the Vice Chancellor of the Presidency University. She was earlier the Chairperson of the Department of Biochemistry in the Bo ...
, an alumnus of Presidency College, who was a senior professor at Bose Institute in Kolkata. Lohia had supervised a number of students for their Ph.D. research over many years in Bose Institute, affiliated for its Ph.D. programme with the University of Calcutta.
The entrance of the campus is marked with a small guardhouse on the left. On the wall of the guard room is a plaque dedicated to durwan (guard) Ram Eqbal Singh, who died defending the institute from rioters.
Organisation structure
Like every
state university in
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the four ...
, Presidency University is headed by the
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
. The
Governor of West Bengal is the Chancellor of every state university.
La. Ganesan
La. Ganesan Iyer (born 16 February 1945) is an Indian politician who is serving as the Governor of Manipur since 27 August 2021 and also served additionally as Governor of West Bengal from 18 July 2022 to 17 November 2022. Prior to serving as ...
is presently incumbent in this post.
The Vice-chancellor is the academic and administrative head of the institution. The post of the Vice-chancellor replaced that of the Principal after Presidency College received University status.
Professor Anuradha Lohia is the first permanent vice-chancellor of the institution. The current
Registrar of the university is Dr. Debajyoti Konar.
In academics, the university consists of two faculties – the Faculty of Natural and Mathematical sciences and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Both Faculties are headed by
deans. A total of 16 departments function under the university. They are:
Bengali,
English,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
,
History
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
,
Performing Arts,
Philosophy,
Political Science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...
,
Sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...
,
Life Sciences,
Chemistry,
Economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analy ...
,
Geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, a ...
,
Geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
,
Mathematics,
Physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...
and
Statistics.
The Controller of Examinations, the Chief Librarian, the Finance Officer and the Dean of Students are other important office holders of the university.
The university is guided by a mentor group. The Mentor Group is chaired by
Sugata Bose, the
Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs The Gardiner Chair of Oceanic History and Affairs was established at Harvard University in 1948.
The chair is named in honor of William Howard Gardiner (died, New York City, 21 June 1952), a publicist and advocate of the importance of sea power, wh ...
at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. Nobel Laureate and
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
Amartya Sen
Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, economi ...
serves as the Advisor to the chair.
Politics
Presidency University is a politically active campus. The
Independents' Consolidation was won all but five students union elections since its formation in 1989. The
SFI
SFI may refer to:
Organisations
* Santa Fe Institute, a theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, US
* Saturday Football International, Taiwanese football club
* Science Foundation Ireland, the statutory body in the Republic of Ireland f ...
won the union elections after a 10-year drought in 2019. Other political outfits in the campus include the
All India Students Association
All India Students' Association (AISA) is a left wing student organisation in India. It describes itself as "the voice of the radical students' movement" and is affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation. The ass ...
and the
All India Trinamool Student Congress.
Principals of Presidency College
Vice Chancellors of Presidency University
Admission
Admission to this institution for undergraduate and postgraduate courses is currently granted on the basis of marks secured in admission tests, PUBDET and PUMDET respectively. Both PUBDET and PUMDET are organised by
West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations Board.
Notable alumni
Presidency University has many notable alumni. They include at least four
heads of states, five
Chief Ministers of West Bengal, four
Chief Justices of India, one Governor of
RBI
RBI most often refers to:
*Reserve Bank of India
*Run batted in
RBI may also refer to:
Organisations
*Radio Berlin International
*Raiffeisen Bank International
*Reed Business Information
*Restaurant Brands International
*Ruđer Bošković In ...
, one
Oscar winner
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
, multiple Padma awardees, at least six
Sahitya Akademi Awardes, Several
national award winning Film Directors, at least 15
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureates, one
Breakthrough Prize winner, two
Nobel laureates, one
Kyoto Prize winner, multiple academics serving as professors in
premier Universities of the world and several civil servants serving in senior capacities.
References
External links
*
{{authority control
19th century in Kolkata
Academic institutions associated with the Bengal Renaissance
Educational institutions established in 1817
1817 establishments in British India
Universities in Kolkata
Hindu universities and colleges