Oldest colleges in India
CMS College at Kottayam
The CMS College at Kottayam is one of the first Western-style college in India. CMS College Kottayam is also the first college in India. It was founded by the Church Missionary Society of England, in 1817 when no institution existed to teach English in the princely state of Travancore.
Some accounts believes that it was started in 1815.
Presidency University or Presidency College, Kolkata
Presidency University, Kolkata established as Hindu College on 20 January 1817. It is considered to be one of the best liberal arts and science institutions in India. The institution was elevated to University status in 2010, before which it was functioning as a top constituent college under University of Calcutta for a period of around 193 years. The University had its bicentenary celebrations in 2017.
Presidency University has many notable alumni, including four heads of states, five Chief Ministers of West Bengal, four Chief Justices of India, one Oscar winner, multiple Padma awardees, atleast 15 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureates, one Breakthrough Prize winner, one Nobel laureate, and multiple academics serving as professors in premier Universities of the world.
Serampore College
Serampore College is located in Serampore in West Bengal. Established in 1818, it is one of the oldest college in the country, and one of the oldest educational institutes in India that is still functional.
It was founded in 1818 by the English missionaries known as the Serampore Trio William Care, Joshua Marshman and William Ward.
King Frederick VI of Denmark originally granted a Royal Charter giving Serampore College the status of a university in the year 1829 to confer degrees, making it India’s first institution to have the status of a university.
With the establishment of the University of Calcutta in 1857, the arts, science and commerce parts of Serampore College were affiliated to the University of Calcutta. However, Serampore College still continues to enjoy the privilege of conferring its own degrees in theology under the power vested by the Charter and Act of Serampore College.
Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER)
JIPMER originated on 1 January 1823 as “Ecole de Médicine de Pondichéry,” a medical school established by the French imperial government in India to train French citizens in Pondichéry. It was one of the earliest institutions of tropical medicine and the teaching staff consisted of surgeons and doctors of the French navy and troupes colones. In 1959, SE Le Comte Stanislas Ostrorog, Ambassadeur de France aux Indes, laid the foundation stone of the new medical college building that was located on the outskirts of the town and, in 1964, the college moved to its new campus at Gorimedu.
With the de jure transfer of Puducherry to India in 1956, the Government of India took over the college and renamed it simply Medical College, Pondicherry. For a short period, it was called the Dhanvantri Medical College and, on July 13, 1964, after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s death on May 27, 1964, it was again renamed to “Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research” (JIPMER).
In 2014, JIPMER started Jipmer international school for public health (JISPH).
Agra College
Agra College is one of the oldest institutions in India. Pandit Gangadhar Shastri, a noted Sanskrit scholar founded the college in 1823. Till 1883 the institute was a government college and after that a Board of Trustees and a Committee of Management managed the college. Agra College produced the first graduate in Uttar Pradesh and the first Law graduate to Northern India.
Wilson College, Mumbai
The Wilson College, set up in 1832 in Mumbai, is one of India’s oldest colleges; its foundation precedes that of the University of Mumbai, to which it is affiliated, by 25 years.
Located opposite Mumbai’s Girgaum Chowpatty, the college building was constructed in 1889 and designed by John Adams in the domestic Victorian Gothic style. It is listed as a Grade III heritage structure in the city.
Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata
The college was established by an order of 28 January 1835 ushered in a new era in the history of medical education in India. Its stated purpose was to train native youths aged between 14 and 20 irrespective of caste and creed in the principles and practices of medical science in accordance with the mode adopted in Europe. This marked the end of official patronage of indigenous medical learning which in its turn evoked long-term reaction among the Indian practitioners of indigenous medicine and later the nationalists who strongly criticised the government for the withdrawal of patronage to the Indian system. Different sections of the Indian population responded to this newly founded system of education in different ways. Among the Hindus the Brahmins, Kayasthas, Vaidyas, were particularly enthusiastic about medical education.
Grant Medical College
The idea of a medical college was first originated by Robert Grant, Governor of Bombay, in 1835. After his death, the citizens of Bombay with Jagannath Shankarshet and Sir Jamshetji Jijabai, resolved in public meeting in the Town Hall on 28th July 1835 that the proposed college may be named to commemorate Robert Grant. Accordingly the Grant Medical College was inaugurated on 3rd November 1845 by George Arthur, the Governor.
St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli
St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli (SJC) in Tamil Nadu, India, was established in 1844 by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It was affiliated to Madras University in 1869 and is currently an affiliated First Grade College of Bharathidasan University. It is the only College awarded with Heritage Status by UGC.
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
The institution has its origins in a class started in 1845 to train local youth in engineering to assist in public works then beginning. In 1847 it was officially established. It was renamed as the Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854 in honour of its founder, Sir James Thomason, lieutenant governor 1843–53.
Established in 1847 in British India by the then lieutenant governor, Sir James Thomason as Thomason College of Civil Engineering at Roorkee of present Uttarakhand state.
It was given university status in 1949 and was converted into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in 2001.
Krishnagar Government College
Krishnagar Government College, established in 1846, is the oldest college in Nadia district of West Bengal. At first the college was under the affiliation of University of Calcutta. Presently it is affiliated to University of Kalyani (KU).
In 1846 Lord Hardinge approved the establishment proposal of the college. Nadia Raj Srishchandra Roy and Maharani Swarnamoyee Devi from Cossimbazar estate donated the land for it. The palatial building was made in 1856. The first principal was David Lester Richardson, famous educationist, ex-principal of the Presidency College, Calcutta.
Elphinstone College, Mumbai
Elphinstone College is an institution of higher education affiliated to the University of Mumbai. Established in 1856, it is one of the oldest colleges of the University of Mumbai. It was exalted as a prestigious seat of learning during the British Raj and is generally observed for its vibrant alumni. It is reputed for producing luminaries like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bhim Rao Ambedkar, Virchand Gandhi, Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozshah Mehta, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, Jamshedji Tata and for illustrious professors that includes Dadabhai Naoroji. It is further observed for having played a key role in spread of Western education in the Bombay Presidency.
Brennen College, Thalassery
Brennen College is an educational institution in Kerala, affiliated to Kannur University. It is located in Dharmadam, Thalassery of Kerala state, India. The college evolved from a school established by the English philanthropist Edward Brennen, master attendant of the Thalassery Port, who had made Thalassery his home. There are 21 departments in the college. The college was granted special heritage status by the University Grants Commission in 2016.
Christ Church College, Kanpur
Christ Church College, Kanpur is a college established in 1866, affiliated with Kanpur University, in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. Earlier in 1840, SPG Mission School was established to educated Christian students. Later its name turned to present one. It is managed by Church of North India (C.N.I). Agra Diocese, managed by the Christ Church College Society, Kanpur
St. Xavier's College, Mumbai
The college is named after Francis Xavier, the 16th-century Spanish Jesuit saint. Its campus in South Mumbai is built in the Indo-Gothic style of architecture, and recognized as a heritage structure. Founded by German Jesuits in 1869, Xavier’s developed rapidly from 1884 to 1914. The imprisonment of German Jesuit priests during the First World War (1914–1918) led to a dislocation of the administration, which was mitigated by the appointment of other European Jesuits. While it began as an arts college, by the 1920s science departments were established. The college was greatly expanded in the 1930s.
St. Xavier’s College was the first college to be granted autonomy by the University of Mumbai in 2010.
Midnapore College
The epic academic Odyssey started from the incipient stages of a private school in 1834, the Zilla School in 1840, a burgeoning College in 1873, a Govt. Sponsored College in 1956 and in 1985 the affiliation of the College changed from the University of Calcutta to Vidyasagar University.
Midnapore College is the oldest and most renowned of all the colleges in the undivided district of Midnapore. It played the pioneering role in the spread of higher education and also in the Freedom Movement of the Country. The past of the college is a saga of meritorious service to all walks of life. Under the aegis of the British Government the college began disseminating Western Education in the interest of rational and scientific education which was led by Raja Rammohan Roy. The college became a part and parcel of Bengal Renaissance.
St. Stephen's College, Delhi
Established in 1881, St. Stephen’s College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi located in Delhi, India. It is a Christian college under Church of North India and widely regarded as one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges for arts and sciences in India, producing a line of distinguished alumni. It was established by the Cambridge Mission to Delhi. The college admits both undergraduates and post-graduates, and awards degrees in liberal arts and sciences under the purview of the University of Delhi. As of 2017, the Governing Body of the College has initiated a move towards making it an autonomous institution.
Hislop College, Nagpur
Hislop College, Nagpur is one of the first colleges in the city of Nagpur. Hislop College was established in 1883 in the Mahal area of Nagpur. The college was affiliated to the University of Calcutta until 1904, and later to Allahabad University. In 1923 it was one of six colleges affiliated to the University of Nagpur.
The college is popular in Nagpur and its surrounding areas, and is one of the best places to study in Maharashtra.
Fergusson College, Pune
Fergusson College (FC), Pune. was founded in 1885 by the Deccan Education Society. Professor Vaman Shivram Apte was its first principal. Social reformer, journalist, thinker and educationist Gopal Ganesh Agarkar served as the second principal from August 1892 till his death in June 1895.
The college is named after Scottish born Sir James Fergusson, the Governor of Bombay, who donated Rs 1,200. Since 1948, the college has been under the jurisdiction of the University of Pune.
Fergusson College has been given many epithets by political leaders, including ‘cradle of Indian polity’ and ‘twin of the Congress’.
The founders of Fergusson College, most notably Tilak and Gokhale, were leaders of the Indian National Congress in its early stages from 1885 to 1920. The college has produced as alumni, notable Congress leaders including Vishwanath Pratap Singh and PV Narasimha Rao, Jivatram Kripalani and Babubhai J Patel.
Khalsa College
Khalsa College is a historic educational institution in the northern Indian city of Amritsar in the state of Punjab, India. Founded in 1892, located about eight kilometers from the city-center on the Amritsar-Lahore highway (part of the Grand Trunk Road), adjoining Guru Nanak Dev University campus, to which Khalsa College is academically affiliated.
Haffkein Institute
The institute is named after Jew Professor Walder Haffkein. In 1897 Mumbai was worst affected by plague and famine. Professor Walder Haffkein, a bacteriologist, developed the anti-plague prophylactic at his laboratory in Mumbai. Haffkine’s discovery, which could relieve millions of Mumbaites of the fear of deadly plague.
Bombay, and in fact India, owes the initiation of technical education to the immense foresight and zealous efforts of such public spirited leaders as Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, M.G.Ranade, Dinshaw Wacha and Badruddin Tyabji, as well as to the support of Lord Reay, the Bombay Municipal Corporation and the Bombay Mill owners Association. The foundation of the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute in 1887, which is probably the oldest institution of its kind in India, was mainly due to the endeavour of these men of vision and the organisations which actively supported the cause. The instituted was named to commemorate the Jubilee of Queen Victoria and was housed in the old Elphinstone College building at Byculla which was donated by Sir D.M.Petit. It was later shifted to its present premises at Matunga in 1923.
Hindu College, Delhi
Hindu College is one of the colleges under the affiliation of University of Delhi in Delhi, India. Founded in 1899, it offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in science, humanities and social sciences and commerce. The college is also among the oldest colleges in Delhi. It has been awarded the ‘Star College’ status for the Department of Biotechnology, by the Ministry of Science and Technology of India.
Cotton College, Guwahati
Cotton College was established in 1901 by Sir Henry Stedman Cotton, the Chief Commissioner of the erstwhile British province of Assam. It had been the oldest institute of higher education in Assam, and the whole northeast India. It became the constituent college of Gauhati University in 1948, and then that of the Cotton College State University, when CCSU was established by an Act (Act XIX of 2011) of the Assam Government in 2011. It was established under The Cotton University Act, 2017 of the Assam Legislative Assembly to merge the Cotton College State University (CCSU) and Cotton College.
The college was started with five professors, which included Frederick William Sudmerson, the first principal of the college, and 39 students. The college was the centre of the freedom movement and the literary and cultural movements of the state to build the identity of Assam as a distinct integral component of India.
The college was declared as Special Heritage College in 2015.
St. Bede's College, Shimla
St. Bede’s College is a women’s college in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. The college was originally established as a teacher’s training institute in 1904 by the Religious of Jesus and Mary.
Ramjas College, Delhi
Founded in 1917 by the great educationist and philanthropist, Rai Kedar Nath, Ramjas College is one of the oldest colleges of Delhi. Beginning from the humble precincts of Darya Ganj in Old Delhi, the College today boasts of a spacious campus, state-of-the-art infrastructure and an esteemed faculty of scholars trained at leading universities in India and abroad.
