Serampore College (University), w. Bengal oldest in India!!

Serampore CollegeW.Bengal..Serampore College.org

The Indian subcontinent has thousands of colleges and universities and if you go back in time, in the early beginning during the colonial time, it was the European missionaries who took serious efforts to start such colleges to impart western education. Though their part of aim was to spread Christianity among the natives, they were  quite sincere about giving decent western education to the natives, without compromising on their culture, languages and traditional Indian education.

Serampore College (University) in Serampore City, West Bengal state, India was founded in 1818. It is the second oldest functional college in the country. 

It was established by the English missionaries known as the Serampore Trio: William Carey, Joshua Marshman and William Ward. In the beginning, the college had been ecumenical, meaning that it had no  support from any one branch of the Christian church. Prior to 1818, the three missionaries provided education to both native males and females.

Serampore College. west bengal tourism
 Then Serampore was a Danish colony and  King Frederick VI, the King of Denmark, issued Serampore College its Royal Charter of Incorporation on 23 February 1827. This was in response to Joshua Marshman's visit to King Frederick in August 1826; the charter gave Serampore College the privilege of awarding degrees in arts and theology. William Carey, Joshua Marshman and John Clark Marshman (Joshua's son) were designated as members of the first council.

Their aim was to impart  education in arts and sciences to native students regardless of "caste, colour or country" and to train people for ministry in the growing church in India. So, the college had  two entities: The theological faculty and a separate college with faculties of arts, science, commerce.The Senate of Serampore College (University)  took care of academic administration of all the theological colleges affiliated with it. Whereas. the  council of Serampore College held a Danish charter and had the power to confer degrees in any subject.

The British took over the management and operation of the college after  22 February 1845  when ownership changed hands from  Denmark to the


William Carey, one of the founders, Serampore College.Wikipedia 
Serampore College en.wikipedia.or

Above image: Serampore College (university), West Bengal, India. One of the founders  William Carey was a Shoemaker who became the Founder of Modern Missions; John Brown Myers; London 1887........................

 
British. In 1856 the Baptist Missionary Society in England took the control of the college and, in 1857, the college became affiliated with the newly established University of Calcutta.

 Later the college was for conferring theological degrees as recommended by the senate. Many theological colleges and seminaries in India.  Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka  were affiliated to the Senate of Serampore College (University). In 1883, the arts and science section was closed and it functioned as a Christian Training Institution. However, the college resumemed the Arts and Science scours after affiliating with University of Calcutta.

one of the founders. John Clark Marshmanen.wikipedia.org

As for the degrees in arts, science and commerce  subjects of the Serampore College are awarded by the University of Calcutta. Serampore university awads degrees related to divinity and christian studies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serampore_College