Institutional Distinctiveness

With hundred and fifty years of élan and excellence, City College, Calcutta is a name in intelligentsia to boastfully enjoy the glory of the Bengal Renaissance which enlightened the entire country.

Tradition and modernity, legacy and technology, history and vision have put the college as an institution on the educational map of the country creating an Indian Diasporas across the world. After the first NAAC accreditation in 2007, the college has been in gradual progression and takes various steps for implementing diverse value enhancement processes during the post accreditation period.

The City College originated from a seabed of widespread educational movement in Bengal towards the latter part of the 19th century by the magnanimous members of the "Sadharan Brahmo Samaj". Since then, the Brahmo Samaj Education Society (BSES) with its illustrious background in the field of education has been entrusted with an extraordinary role to elevate the City College to its zenith as a seat of learning. During the period when only a few Government educational institutes were present and those were exclusively for the children of rich and well off families and studying in the Government schools and colleges were the day-dream of the innumerable students belonging to under privileged families, BSES came forward and started its journey by establishing number of educational institutions for the marginalized middle class of Bengal. The dream came true with the establishment of City College which started as a High school by Anandamohan Bose, the first Wrangler of Bengal, on 6th January 1879. The wholehearted support and assistance from Pandit Shivnath Shastri and Rastraguru Surendranath Bandyopadhyay made the road smooth for establishing the school. The school was opened with the objective of educating Indian students irrespective of castes and creeds on an improved and comprehensive plan. Academic learning for degrees was not the end-result in the aim but the school also had a strong motivation in educating a student to become a perfect and ideal man to the society. Gradually the school improved to meet all the requirements of a university affiliation.

In 1881, the City school was expanded to a first-grade college. Sir Alfred Croft (the then Director of Public Institutions) observed in his official report that 'the unaided City College of Calcutta occupied a unique and distinguished position in regard to the reading of science'.

By the year 1920, the college was preparing students for the B.A. examination in English, Sanskrit, Political Economy and Political Philosophy, History and Persian and also for the B.Sc. Examination in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. In 1939, a Commerce Department was opened. This was followed by the inauguration of the Women’s department in 1943. Now there are 15 departments in the college and each department is equipped with highly qualified teaching, non-teaching staff, libraries and laboratories as par requirement of the present day.

In 2013, Ministry of Human Resource Development selected the college suitable for running its pilot project of Community College scheme. As a result the 'Community College of City College' is now en route a new destination for job-oriented disciplines in the state.

Several luminaries as scions of Bengal Renaissance including Deshbandhu Chitta Ranjan Das, Sir Surendranath Bandyopadhyay, Dr. Rajendra Prasad (Former President of India), Harendra Kumar Mukhopadhyay (Former Governor of West Bengal), Umesh Chandra Dutta, Bhashacharya Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay, Jibanananda Das and Muhammad Shahidulla taught at this College and did us a proud generation to follow.

Under the careful guidance of BSES, City College from its modest start has grown in to a mighty institution during the last 140 years. It gradually attains a highly glorious position in the sphere of higher education in Bengal and has planned to augment further to join the race of fast moving advances of science, technology and education in all spheres of life.

In 2017, Government of West Bengal took over the administration of the City College and since then it is running as one of the aided colleges of West Bengal.