University of Calcutta
 Seal of the University of Calcutta | |
| Latin: Universitas Calcuttae | |
Other name | Calcutta University |
|---|---|
| Motto | Advancement of Learning |
| Type | Public |
| Established | 24 January 1857 |
| Founder |
|
| Accreditation | NAAC with Grade "A+" |
Academic affiliations | |
| Budget | ₹337 crore (US$42 million) (2021–22 est.)[1] |
| Chancellor | Governor of West Bengal |
| Vice-Chancellor | Asis Kumar Chattopadhyay[2] |
| Rector | Chief Minister of West Bengal |
Academic staff | 1,255 (2022)[3] |
| Students | 19,119 (2022)[3] |
| Undergraduates | 2,830 (2022)[3] |
| Postgraduates | 12,779 (2022)[3] |
| 3,510 (2022)[3] | |
| Location | , India 22°34′35″N 88°21′43″E / 22.57639°N 88.36194°ECoordinates: 22°34′35″N 88°21′43″E / 22.57639°N 88.36194°E |
| Campus | Urban |
| Acronym | CU |
| Website | www |
The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; abbreviated as CU) is a public collegiate state research university located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of the best state research universities in India every year, CU has topped among India's best universities several times. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate colleges and 16 institutes in Kolkata and nearby areas. It was established on 24 January 1857 and is the oldest multidisciplinary and European-style institution in Asia. Today, the university's jurisdiction is limited to a few districts of West Bengal, but at the time of establishment it had a catchment area ranging from Lahore to Myanmar. Within India, it is recognized as a "Five-Star University" and accredited an "A+" grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). The University of Calcutta was awarded the status of "Centre with Potential for Excellence in Particular Area" and "University with potential for excellence" by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The university has a total of fourteen campuses spread over the city of Kolkata and its suburbs. As of 2020, 151 colleges and 21 institutes and centres are affiliated with CU. The university was fourth in the Indian University Ranking 2021 list, released by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the Ministry of Education of the Government of India.
Its alumni and faculty include several heads of state and government, social reformers, prominent artists, the only Indian Academy award winner and Dirac medal winner, many Fellows of the Royal Society and three Nobel laureates as of 2019. The Nobel laureates associated with this university are C. V. Raman, Amartya Sen, and Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee.
The university has the highest number of students who have cleared the National Eligibility Test. The University of Calcutta is a member of the United Nations Academic Impact.
History
Pre-independence
Fredrick John, the education secretary to the British Government in India, first tendered a proposal to them in London for the establishment of a university in Calcutta, along the lines of London University. In July 1854, the Court of Directors of the East India Company sent a dispatch, known as Wood's despatch, to the Governor General of India in Council, to establish universities in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.[4][5]
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. The land for the establishment of the university was given by Maharaja Maheshwar Singh Bahadur, who was a Maharaja of Darbhanga. When the university was first established it had a jurisdiction from Lahore to Rangoon and Ceylon, the largest of any Indian university.[6] Calcutta University was the first university east of Suez to teach European classics, English literature, European and Indian philosophy and Occidental and Oriental history.[7][8] The first medical school in British India, the Calcutta Medical College, was affiliated with the university in 1857.[9] The first college for women in India, Bethune College, is affiliated with the university.[10]
From 1836 to 1890,
Initially, the university was only an affiliating and examining body. All the academic and teaching work was done in constituent colleges, which were the Presidency College (now called Presidency University), the Scottish Church College, the Sanskrit College and the Bengal Engineering College (now called Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology). During that period, the Council Room of the Calcutta Medical College and private residence of the vice-chancellor used to house the Senate meetings. The faculty councils generally met at the residences of the presidents of the faculties concerned, in the Civil Engineering College or in the Writers' Building. Because of the lack of space, university examinations were conducted in the Kolkata Town Hall and in tents in the Maidan urban park.[17]
In 1866, a grant of ₹81,600 (equivalent to ₹32 million or US$400,000 in 2020) for the site and ₹170,561 (equivalent to ₹66 million or US$830,000 in 2020) was sanctioned to construct the new building on College Street. It opened in 1873 and was called Senate House. It had meeting halls for the Senate, a chamber for the vice-chancellor, the office of the registrar, examination rooms and lecture halls. In 1904, postgraduate teaching and research began at the university, which led to an increase in the number of students and candidates. After almost sixty years, a second building, known as the Darbhanga Building, was erected in 1912 with a donation of ₹2.5 lakh (equivalent to ₹6.6 crore or US$820,000 in 2020) from Maharaja Maheshwar Singh Bahadur.[17]
The Darbhanga Building housed the University Law College, its library and some university offices and afforded space to hold university examinations on its top floor. In the same year, the Government of British India granted a sum of ₹8 lakh (equivalent to ₹21 crore or US$2.6 million in 2020) for the acquisition of a market, Madhab Babu's Bazar, situated adjacent to the Senate House, and construction of a new building for the teaching departments began. It opened in 1926, and was later named the Asutosh Building, after Asutosh Mukherjee, vice-chancellor of the university in 1906–14. Between 1912 and 1914, Taraknath Palit and Rash Behari Ghosh, two eminent lawyers, donated assets totalling ₹25 lakh (equivalent to ₹57 crore or US$7.1 million in 2020), and founded the University College of Science at Upper Circular Road (now known as Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road).[17]
Post-independence
Before the partition of India, twenty-seven colleges from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) were affiliated with the university. The Government of West Bengal passed the Calcutta University Act of 1951, which substituted the earlier act of 1904 and ensured a democratic structure for the university. The West Bengal Secondary Education Act was passed in the same year linking the university with the school leaving examination. Gradually the requirements of the university grew, and the Senate House was becoming incapable of handling them. After the centenary of Calcutta University, the building was demolished to make space for a more utilitarian building. In 1957, the university's centenary year, it received a grant of ₹1 crore (equivalent to ₹85 crore or US$11 million in 2020) from the University Grants Commission, which aided with the construction of the Centenary Building on the College Street campus and the Law College Building on Hazra Road campus. The Economics Department got its own building in 1958 near Barrackpore Trunk Road. In 1965, the Goenka Hospital Diagnostic Research Centre for the University College of Medicine was opened as the university health service. Until 1960, Senate House was one of the city's most prominent landmarks.[17][18]
In 1968, the Centenary Building opened on the former location of the Senate House. Currently, it houses the Central Library, the Asutosh Museum of Indian Art, the centenary auditorium and a number of university offices. By the mid-1970s, it had become one of the largest universities in the world. It had 13 colleges under its direct control and more than 150 affiliated colleges, along with 16 postgraduate faculties.[19] In the year 2001, the University of Calcutta was awarded the 'Five-Star' status in the first cycle of the university's accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). In 2009 and 2017, the NAAC awarded its highest grade of 'A' to the University of Calcutta in the second and third cycle of the university's accreditation.[20][21] In 2019, the university's central library and 40 departmental libraries were opened to the public. They have over one million books and more than 200,000 journals, proceedings and manuscripts.[22][17]
Seal
The seal has changed multiple times over the years. The first seal dates back to 1857. It was changed when the Government of India Act 1858 was passed by the British parliament. This brought the government and territories of the East India Company, including the University of Calcutta under the British Crown. Seal three, four and five were introduced in 1930s, The fourth seal faced criticism locally. The current university seal is the modified version of the sixth seal. The motto Advancement of Learning has remained the same through the seal's transitions.[23]
Campuses
The university has a total of 14 campuses spread over the city of Kolkata and its suburbs. They are referred to as Sikhsa Prangan, which means education premises. Major campuses include the Central Campus (Ashutosh Shiksha Prangan) on College Street, University College of Science, Technology and Agriculture (Rashbehari Shiksha Prangan or Rajabazar Science College or Science College) in Rajabazar, Taraknath Palit Shiksha Prangan in Ballygunge and Sahid Khudiram Siksha Prangan in Alipore. Other campuses include the Hazra Road Campus, the University Press and Book Depot, the B. T. Road Campus, the Viharilal College of Home Science Campus, the University Health Service, the Haringhata Campus, the Dhakuria Lakes (University Rowing Club) and the University Ground and Tent at Maidan.[24][25][26]
Asutosh Siksha Prangan
Asutosh Siksha Prangan (commonly called the College Street Campus) is the university's main campus where the administrative work is done. Located on College Street, it is spread over an area of 2.7 acres (1.1 ha). It houses the Arts and Language department, administrative offices, museum, the central library, an auditorium etc.[27][28] Exhibits like folk art of Bengal are present in the Asutosh Museum of Indian Art.[29] Senate House was the first university building situated on this campus; it opened in 1872. In 1960, it was demolished to make way for a larger building, the Centenary Building, which opened in 1968. The Darbhanga Building and the Asutosh Building are the two other buildings opened in 1921 and 1926, respectively.[17]
Asutosh Building Teaching Departments[30]
- Arabic & Persian
- Bengali Language & Literature
- Commerce
- English
- French
- Hindi
- Languages [Foreign]
- Library & Information Science
- Linguistics
- Pali
- Sanskrit
- Urdu
Rashbehari Siksha Prangan
Rashbehari Siksha Prangan (also known as University College of Science, Technology and Agriculture, or more commonly Rajabazar Science College), is located on Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road in Rajabazar. Established in 1914,[31] houses several scientific and technological departments, including pure and applied chemistry, pure and applied physics, applied optics and photonics, radio physics, applied mathematics, psychology, physiology, biophysics and molecular biology, and others.[24][32]
Taraknath Palit Siksha Prangan
Taraknath Palit Siksha Prangan (also known as University College of Science or commonly Ballygunge Science College) on Ballygunge Circular Road in the southern part of the city, houses the departments of agriculture, anthropology, biochemistry, microbiology, botany, geography, genetics, statistics, zoology, neuroscience, marine science, biotechnology, and most notably geology, among others.[24] It also houses S. N. Pradhan Centre For Neurosciences and the Institute of Agricultural Science.[33]
Sahid Khudiram Siksha Prangan
Sahid Khudiram Siksha Prangan, commonly known as Alipore Campus, located at Alipore is the humanities campus of the university. The departments of history, ancient Indian history and culture, Islamic history and culture, South and Southeast Asian studies, archaeology, political science, business management and museology are situated on this campus.[34]
Technology Campus
The Technology Campus, also known as the Tech Camps, is the newest on the university. It brings together the three engineering and technical departments: the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the A.K.C. School of Information Technology and the Department of Applied Optics and Photonics, in Sector 3, JD Block, Salt Lake.[31][35][36]
Organisation and administration
Governance
The university is governed by a board of administrative officers, which include the vice-chancellor, pro-vice-chancellor for academic affairs, pro-vice-chancellor for business affairs and finance, the registrar, the university librarian, the inspector of colleges, the system manager and 35 others. They monitor the operation of the university and its affiliated colleges and the university's funding.[37] In 2017, Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee became the 51st vice-chancellor of the university.[38] The university is funded by the University Grants Commission, the Government of West Bengal, other agencies for various research works and by the university's own initiatives like fees, sales proceeds, publications, service charges generated from endowment funds etc.[39][40]
Jurisdiction
At one point of time, the university had a huge catchment area in British India, starting from Lahore in the west to Rangoon in east and Ceylon in the south. Colleges like Thomason Engineering College (now IIT Roorkee), Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College (now Aligarh Muslim University) etc. were affiliated to the university. Schools situated in districts like Rawalpindi, Lahore, Jaypur, Cawnpur, Lucknow, Mussoorie etc. used to prepare and send students for the entrance examination of the university. No provisions to curtail territorial control were made after establishment of University of Punjab and Allahabad in 1882 and 1887 respectively. Although after the Indian Universities Act of 1904 came in, for the first time, the university's control got curtailed to Bengal (which included Orissa and Bihar), Assam and Burma provinces. In the act, provisions were made to limit territorial jurisdiction and it gave the Governor-General-in-Council the power to limit territorial jurisdiction of the five universities; Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, the Punjab and Allahabad.[41]
Following the Government of British India notification on 20 August 1904, Ceylon went under the University of Madras; provinces, states and agencies of Central India, such as the Central India Agency, Rajputana Agency, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh etc. went to the hands of University of Allahabad; Northern and North-Western provinces and states went under the University of Punjab. Jurisdiction of schools and colleges in Eastern India retained to Calcutta University. By 1907, two colleges in Punjab, three in the Central Province, five in the State of Rajputana Agency, six in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh and seven in Ceylon were disaffiliated. Series of disaffiliation continued till 1948. Schools and colleges in Orissa and Bihar province went under University of Patna after its establishment in 1917. University of Rangoon was established in 1920 and the Burma region went under it in 1921. In the same year, University of Dacca was established and some colleges in East Bengal went under it and whole control was cut with the partition of India in 1947. In 1948, All the schools and colleges in Assam left the university after the establishment of Gauhati University.[6][42]
As of 2020, 151 colleges and 22 institutes and centres, in West Bengal are affiliated with the university.[43][44][45] Some of the affiliated colleges include:[46]
Faculties and departments
The university has 60 departments organized into seven faculties: arts, commerce, social welfare and business management, education, journalism and library science, engineering and technology, fine arts, music and home science, law and science; and an agriculture institute with six departments.[45]
To provide agricultural education and research, the Institute of Agricultural Science was established under the University of Calcutta. It was founded by Pabitra Kumar Sen, who was the Khaira Professor of Agriculture (another endowment chair) in the early 1950s. Initial efforts began as early as 1913, but the first institute was set up only in 1939 at Barrackpore (a city near Kolkata) by the university, following the establishment of Imperial Council of Agricultural Research (now known as Indian Council of Agricultural Research) in 1926.[47] Although it was shut down in 1941 due to World War II. Then, in 1954, a postgraduate department in agriculture was started in Ballygunge Science College by the university, with agricultural botany as the only subject and two years later, Veterinary Science Institute of the university was included and the department was upgraded into a faculty called agriculture and veterinary science. In 2002 university decided to reopen undergraduate agriculture course in the agricultural experiment farm campus at Baruipur, a city in the south of Calcutta. In the same year, the department was restructured as a separate Institute of Agricultural Science.[48]
The Faculty of Arts consists of 23 departments; commerce consists of three departments; education, journalism and library science consist of three departments; engineering and technology consist of eight departments; science has 22 departments and home science offers courses on subjects such as food and nutrition, human development, and home science.[45] The Faculty of Law was established in January 1909 as the University College of Law. It was granted status as the university's department of law in February 1996. This campus is popularly known as Hazra Law College. The faculty has many luminaries associated with it, including Rajendra Prasad, Rashbehari Ghose, and Chittaranjan Das.[49][45]
Academics
Admission
For undergraduate courses—Arts (BA), Commerce (B.Com.) and Science (BSc) streams (except engineering courses)—one can apply directly for multiple courses based on their Higher Secondary School Certificate examination or any equivalent exam results. Students are shortlisted according to their marks and the number of seats available. For some departments, entrance exams may take place at the sole discretion of the head of the department. Anyone can apply within five years of passing the Higher Secondary Examination.[50] For engineering courses, admission is based on the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (WBJEE) rankings.[51][52] While, for postgraduate courses and doctoral degree courses, one has to take an entrance exam/written test given by the university or any national level exam related to the subject, held by the UGC. A merit list is prepared on the basis of the results of the exams.[53][54][55]
Research
Undergraduates may enroll for a three- or four-year program in engineering. Students choose a major when they enter the university, and cannot change it unless they opt later for the university's professional or self-financed postgraduate programs. Science and business disciplines are in high demand, largely in anticipation of better employment prospects. Most programs are organized on an annual basis, though some programs are semester dependent. Most departments offer master's programs of a year or a few years' duration. Research is conducted in specialized institutes as well as individual departments, many of which have doctoral programs.[45]
The University of Calcutta has the largest research center, which started from the 100th Science Congress of India in January 2013. This is the Center for Research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (CRNN) on the Technology Campus of CU at Salt Lake, West Bengal.
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