Presidency University.

About Presidency University

The Presidency University, formerly Presidency College, is a public state university located in College Street, Kolkata. Established in 1817 as the Hindoo College, it was later renamed Presidency College in 1855 and functioned as a leading constituent college under the University of Calcutta. It is widely regarded as the oldest and one of the most prestigious places of higher education in India as well as one of the oldest in Asia. This institution has been the source of origination of many Institutions of national importance, the most prominent of them being the Indian Statistical Institute, an epitome of higher mathematical sciences in India, originating in the Department of Physics of the college as Department of Statistics way back in 1931, founded by an alumni and 6 times principal of then the college, Dr. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, The Statistics Man of India. Another of such an example although with a slight twist is that of IIEST, Shibpur, the 2nd oldest engineering institution of the Indian Subcontinent, started as a department at then Hindoo College, was separated out to form Civil Engineering College and again merged with Presidency College as Department of Civil Engineering for a duration of 4 years upto 1880, when it was transferred to it's present premises as Govt College, Howrah.