The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (CU), is a public state university located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. 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 university of Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asian Region. Today, the university's jurisdiction is limited to a few districts of West Bengal, but at the time of its establishment it had a catchment area ranging from Kabul to Myanmar. It is accredited as an "A" grade university by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
Rabindra Bharati University is a public research university in Kolkata, India. It was founded on May 8, 1962, under the Rabindra Bharati Act of the Government of West Bengal in 1961, to mark the birth centenary of the poet Rabindranath Tagore. It is located at the Tagore family home, Jorasanko Thakur Bari. The university offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Performing Arts and Visual Arts under the Faculty of Fine Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and other subjects under the Faculty of Arts.
Presidency University, Kolkata is a public state university located in College Street, Kolkata. It was among the best colleges in the country when the institute was affiliated to University of Calcutta. The institution was elevated to university status in 2010 after functioning as a constituent college of the University of Calcutta for about 193 years. Currently, it continues to rank among the top universities in India. The University boasts an illustrious list of extraordinary alumni over the last two centuries, including several pioneers of the Bengal Renaissance, leaders of the Indian Independence Movement, heads of state, noble laureates, Academy Award winner etc.
Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee was a prolific Bengali educator, jurist, barrister and mathematician. He was the first student to be awarded a dual degree from Calcutta University. Perhaps the most emphatic figure of Indian education, he was a man of great personality, high self-respect, courage and towering administrative ability. The second Indian Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta for four consecutive two-year terms (1906–1914) and a fifth two-year term (1921–23), Mukherjee was responsible for the foundation of the Bengal Technical Institute in 1906, which was later known as Jadavpur University and the University College of Science of the Calcutta University in 1914.
Abdus Sattar was a Bangladeshi statesman. A leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), he served as the president of Bangladesh from 1981 to 1982, and earlier as the vice president. A jurist by profession, Abdus Sattar held numerous constitutional and political offices in British India, East Pakistan and Bangladesh. He was a cabinet minister, supreme court judge, and chief election commissioner.
The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences is a National Law University (NLU) located in Bidhannagar, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. In 2023, it was ranked 4th among law colleges in India by National Institutional Ranking Framework and 2nd by India Today. It comes under the exclusive chancellorship and purview of the Chief Justice of India.
Bengali Brahmos are those who adhere to Brahmoism, the philosophy of Brahmo Samaj which was founded by Raja Rammohan Roy. A recent publication describes the disproportionate influence of Brahmos on India's development post-19th Century as unparalleled in recent times.
Patha Bhavana is an institution of primary and secondary education in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India. Founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1901, starting with only five students, the school is characterized by its philosophy of learning with the heart in closeness to nature without any superficial barriers between teachers and students, as opposed to the strict, repetitive and the rote learning system that was mainstream during Tagore's childhood. Often referred to as an ashram system, initially what started out as this school, later grew into what is now Visva-Bharati University. It is one of the two primary and secondary school affiliated with the Visva-Bharati University; the other being Siksha Satra.
Pratap Chandra Chunder was a union minister of India, educationist and author. He served in the Morarji Desai Ministry as a cabinet minister with education and social welfare portfolios.
University of Gour Banga is a public state university located in Malda, West Bengal, India. It is one of the newest state universities established in 2008 by the Government of West Bengal on Act XXVI 2007.
Rajat Kanta Ray is a historian of South Asian history, specializing in Modern Indian history.
Bikash Sinha was an Indian physicist who was active in the fields of nuclear physics and high energy physics. Sinha was the director of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and the chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur in June 2005. He was also a member of scientific advisory board to the Prime Minister of India.
Altamas Kabir was an Indian lawyer and judge who served as the 39th Chief Justice of India.
Sir Muhammad Azizul Haque, KCSI, CIE, also known as Muhammad Azizul Huq or Mohammad Azizul Huque, was a Bengali lawyer, writer and public servant. He studied at Presidency College and University Law College in Calcutta. He worked to better the condition of Muslim people, primarily in the rural farmlands. This led him to work with Sher-e-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Haque, Sir Abdulla Suhrawardy, Sir Salimullah and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He remained friends with many throughout his life.
On 16 September 2014, peaceful demonstrations by students took place in front of the administrative building of the University, demanding an investigation into the alleged molestation of a female student in campus. After several unsuccessful attempts at dialogue with the authorities, the students gheraoed some personnel of the university authority, including Vice-Chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti. The vice-chancellor called the police, who dispersed the students by force in the early hours of 17 September. This triggered a wave of protests by students and teachers.
Pratul Chandra Gupta was an Indian historian, writer and the author of Nana Sahib and the Rising at Cawnpore, a historical account of the siege of Cawnpore. Considered by many as an authority on Maratha history, he translated The Maharashta Purana, an 18th-century Bengali text written by Gangaram into English, Edward C. Dimock, a known Indologist, being his co-translator. One of his books, INA in Military Operation, was commissioned by Jawaharlal Nehru but the book could not be published, reportedly due to political objections. The Last Peshwa and the English Commissioners, 1818-1851 and Shah Alam II and His Court are some of his other notable works. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1975, for his contributions to Literature.
The Department of Law, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, formerly University College of Law, is a faculty in the University of Calcutta, founded in 1909, colloquially referred to as Hazra Law College, which offers undergraduate, postgraduate, doctorate and post doctorate courses. The Faculty oversees fifteen affiliated Law schools of the University.
Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee is an Indian academic who served as vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta.
