Presidency University has a unique place in history. It was one of the first institutes of Western-type higher education in Asia. In 1817, a group of enlightened Indians and Englishmen set up the Hindoo College. This was taken over the British Government in 1855 as the College of the Bengal Presidency, and placed in 1857 under the newly founded Calcutta University.

Over the next hundred years and more, Presidency College was Bengal’s pre-eminent centre of higher learning. Although a Constituent College of Calcutta University, it preserved a tradition of research matched by few universities in India. This gave a unique dimension to its undergraduate teaching.