Concept

University of Calcutta

Overview

The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (CU), is a public state research university located in Kolkata, also known as Calcutta, in 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 the Indian Subcontinent and the 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).

The university has a total of fourteen campuses spread over the city of Kolkata and its suburbs. Since 2020, 151 colleges and 21 institutes, and centres have been 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.

Its alumni and faculty include several heads of state and government, social reformers, prominent artists, the only Indian Dirac Medal winner, many Fellows of the Royal Society, and six Nobel laureates as of 2025. The Nobel laureates associated with this university are Ronald Ross, Rabindranath Tagore, C. V. Raman, Amartya Sen, and Abhijit 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.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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A kindergarten conducted along the same lines exists in Pittsburgh as part of the city university. It is called “The School of Childhood,” and emphasizes the healthy physical development of the children. The work is centered around the natural interests of children; and while they apparently do not do as much construction work as in the Teachers’ College kindergarten, there is more individual play. The writer has…
John Dewey, Schools of to-morrow
States what University of Calcutta is.
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1910 1914 1917 1919 Number of Schools 42,444 59,796 128,048 134,000 Number of Teachers 185,566 200,000 326,417 326,000 Number of Students 1,625,534 3,849,554 4,269,197 4,500,000 Considering that the years concerned are years of revolution and civil war, it must be admitted that the progress shown by these figures is very remarkable. There are schemes for universal elementary education, but so far, owing to the…
Bertrand Russell, The Problem of China
Close in meaning to University of Calcutta; the term itself is not named.
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The Branch was therefore fortunate in being, in 1916, invited by the Government of the Central Provinces to produce a series of Readers—in Hindi and Marathi—for use in schools throughout the province. At that time no paper could be imported from England, and the staff of the Branch was depleted by war. Nevertheless, within a year over half a million volumes had been written, printed, and illustrated, and were ready…
Oxford University Press, Some Account of the Oxford University Press, 1468-1921
Close in meaning to University of Calcutta; the term itself is not named.
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University of Calcutta

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