UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA

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Formally established on the 24 January 1857, the 'University of Calcutta' (also known as 'Calcutta University') (Bengali: কলকাতা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়), located in the city of Kolkata (previously Calcutta), India, is the first modern university in the Indian subcontinent. It is a state-government administered urban-based affiliating and research university. It has its main campuses in College Street, Rajabazar, Alipore, Hazra, South Sinthi and a host of affiliated colleges in greater Kolkata .

Contents
History
Campus
Academics
Faculties
Education and research
A tradition of notable firsts
Recent accreditation and recognition
Notable alumni/faculty
Notes
External links

History


Main articles: History of University of Calcutta

University of Calcutta is the oldest of the modern universities in India. University of Calcutta It was founded in 1857 during the administration of Lord Canning (1856–1862), 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, along the lines of London University, but 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) — the largest of any Indian university.
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. Genesis and Historical Overview of the University In 1858, Joddu Nath Bose and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay became the first graduates of the university. Memorable Events On 30 January 1858, the Syndicate of the Calcutta University started functioning. 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 1875 Mohindra College, Patiala in 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 lady graduates of the country in 1882. The Hon'ble Justice Gooroodas Banerjee became the first Indian Vice-Chancellor of University of Calcutta in the year 1890. Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee was the Vice-Chancellor for four consecutive two-year terms (1906–1914) and a fifth two-year term (1921–23).

Campus


Ashutosh Building at the College Street campus

The university has several campuses spread over the city of Kolkata and its suburbs. The university also has many affiliated colleges spread over the southern West Bengal. The main campus of the university, located on College Street, is spread over a small area of 2.7 acres (much less than a square kilometer). Campus Area The main campus is also known as the ''Asutosh Siksha Prangan'', and contains Darbhanga Building, Asutosh Building, Hardinge Building, and the Centenary Building. Campuses 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 a few. ''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 among others. Other campuses are Hazra Road Campus, University Press And Book Depot, Sahid Khudiram Siksha Prangan, 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.
The university has a plan to create a "Techno Campus", to bring together the engineering and technical departments under one roof, in Salt Lake. Calcutta University plans Techno campus

Academics


'Faculties of the university'

★ Faculty of Agriculture
★ Faculty of Arts
★ Faculty of Commerce, Social Welfare & Business Management
★ Faculty of Education, Journalism and Library Science
★ Faculty of Engineering & Technology
★ Faculty of Fine Arts, Music and Home Science
★ Faculty of Law
★ Faculty of Science

Faculties

Darbhanga Building at the College Street campus

University of Calcutta has fifty 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. Courses Offered
The faculty of Agriculture consists of the sole department of Institute of Agricultural Science and offers post graduate courses on agronomy, horticulture, Genetics & Plant Breeding and Seed Science & Technology among others. Faculty Council for Post-Graduate Studies in Agriculture The Arts 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. Faculty Council for Post-Graduate Studies in Arts The departments of business management and commerce are under the faculty of Commerce, Social Welfare & Business Management. Courses on journalism and mass communication, library & information science are offered by the faculty of Education, Journalism and Library Science through three departments. Faculty Council for Post-Graduate Studies in Education, Journalism and Library Science
Faculty of Engineering & Technology includes the departments of applied physics, chemical engineering, chemical technology, computer science and engineering, polymer science and technology, radiophysics and electronics and computer centre. Faculty Council for Post-Graduate Studies in Engineering & Technology Home science is the sole department in the faculty of Fine Arts, Music and Home Science, offering courses on subjects such as food and nutrition, human development, home science. Faculty Council for Post-Graduate Studies in Fine Arts, Music and Home Science The faculty of Law comprises of only one department of law while the faculty of Science has nineteen departments. The later faculty offers courses on traditional science subjects like physics, chemistry, botany and also on subjects like biotechnology, microbiology, bioinformatics, marine science etc. Faculty Council for Post-Graduate Studies in Science
Education and 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 centers, 650 teachers, 3000 non-teaching staff and 12,400 post-graduate students.
A tradition of notable firsts

The Centenary Library at the College Street campus overlooking College Square. The library was built on the place of the previously existing University Senate Hall


★ 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 set up in 1835. Later it was affiliated to the university.

★ The first college for women in India, the Bethune College was set up 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 blind school in India came into being in 1925.

★ The first university museum in India, The Ashutosh Museum, came into being in 1937.

★ The Government Arts College was established in 1951.

★ The Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM) was set up in 1953 as the country's first management institute.

Recent accreditation and recognition



NAAC Five Star Recognition
The university was awarded the ‘five star university’ status by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council in 2001.

Ranking of Institute of Higher Education,Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
The Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China recently prepared a list of the world's top 500 institutions of higher learning (universities, research institutes etc.). The complete list is now available on the internet under the heading "Academic Ranking of World Universities, 2004" (see link above). The University of Calcutta was the only multi-disciplinary university from India to appear on the list. The other institutions from India on the list, for that year, were the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

CU gets "Potential for Excellence" tag of University Grants Commission
On December 8, 2005, the Indian University Grants Commission declared Calcutta University as a ‘‘University with Potential for Excellence’’.

The world's top arts and humanities universities
On November 10, 2005, The Times Higher Education Supplement published its list of the world's top arts and humanities universities. CU, ranked 39, was the only Indian university to make it to the top 50 list in that year.

Notable alumni/faculty


Nobel Laureates:

Rabindranath Tagore,

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

Amartya Sen,
Two former Presidents of India:

Rajendra Prasad

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Other notable faculty:

Jagadish Chandra Bose

Prafulla Chandra Roy

Satyendranath Bose

Meghnad Saha
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Head of State and Prime Minister of Arzi Hukumate Azad Hind (1942-1945) and co-founder of the Indian National Army was an alumnus.
Academy Honorary Award winner Satyajit Ray and his father Sukumar Ray were among the notable alumni.
Other important political leaders of South Asia who were its alumni include:

Jagjivan Ram, former Deputy Prime Minister of India

★ Dr.Ba Maw, who in 1937, became the first Burmese premier under British rule and was head of state in the first sovereign (although pro-Japanese) government during World War II (August 1943-May 1945),

Muhammad Ali Bogra and

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, both of them being former Prime Ministers of Pakistan

★ Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, former President and Prime Minister of Bangladesh

Abdus Sattar, former President of Bangladesh

Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, former Prime Minister and senior politician of Nepal

Romanian-American religious scholar and philosopher Mircea Eliade studied at the University in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

★ In 1883 Kadambini Ganguly (nee Basu) and Chandramukhi Basu became the first women graduates from the University. In the process, they became the first female graduates of the British Empire.

Kadambini Ganguly also went on to be the first lady physician to be trained in the European system of medicine in South Asia. In 1886, she received her medical degree from the University.

Chandramukhi Basu later became the principal of Bethune College, thus becoming the first female administrator of an undergraduate academic institution in South Asia.

Kamini Roy, first female honours graduate in the British Empire, first feminist author in India

Upendranath Brahmachari, renowned physician and nominee for the Nobel prize in 1929 in the category of physiology and medicine

Binay Ranjan Sen, former ambassador of India to the USA, Italy and Yugoslavia, Japan, and Mexico and former Director General, Food and Agriculture Organization, UNO

Suniti Kumar Chatterjee - brilliant student and alumnus, later National Professor.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, a noted deconstructionist, feminist, and translator.
For a fuller list of the University's famous alumni, see the List of University of Calcutta people.

Notes


External links



Official website

Good source of information

From Banglapedia.com

From Encyclopedia Britannica

University of Calcutta - Calcutta, West Bengal Alumni Registry

Serampore College 1

Serampore College 2

University rating by StudentIndia.com

Applied Physics Alumni Association

extended history

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