Asutosh College is one of the well-known colleges in the capital city of Kolkata in the state of West Bengal. The renowned mathematician Asutosh Mukherjee with a deep dream did establish this college. This College is affiliated to the University of Calcutta. The Asutosh College bears a rich heritage which contributes to its own culture. The College was founded in the year 1916 under the leadership of Sir Asutosh Mukherjee, the famous educationist, mathematician and the then Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta. The Asutosh College was then known as South Suburban College and was housed at a rented premise. When Sir Asutosh left for his heavenly abode in the year 1924, the college was renamed after him. The College was shifted to its present location in the year 1935. The Asutosh College is situated at 92, S.P. Mukherjee Road, Kolkata -700026.
Presently, the college building possesses a premise of 40, 000 square feet and more than 50 classrooms which can contain about 4000 students. About 27 subjects are taught as honours or Major at the Undergraduate level. In the year 2002, a post graduation course in Environmental Science was introduced. All the departments have their own libraries and well-organized laboratories for Science departments.
Courses offered in Asutosh College
Courses which are offered in the Asutosh College include Bachelor of Arts degree in Bengali, English, Political Science, History, Philosophy, Sanskrit, Psychology, Psychology, Economics, Sociology, Mass Communication, Journalism, Communicative English, etc. For Bachelor of Science degree the subjects include Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Electronics, Geology, Geography, Botany, Zoology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, etc. are offered. B.Sc. Major Course is Industrial Fish and Fisheries are also offered. BBA honours course is also offered in this college in Kolkata. There are presently two post-graduate departments in the Asutosh College including the Department of Zoology and the Department of Environment Science where M.Sc courses are offered to the students and this course is offered under the University of Calcutta.
The Asutosh College Training Centre (ACTC)
The Asutosh College Training Centre or ACTC was founded in the year 1993. The former Principal of the College Dr. Subhankar Chakravorty reckoned that the courses which are according to the traditional syllabus should be suitably supplemented by several career-related courses in order to help the students to be well-equipped with regard to the modern day demands. The ACTC presently offers the following courses:
a) Preparatory Training for WBCS Examination.
b) Preparatory Training for NET, SLET (only 1st paper in Arts & Commerce stream)
c) Preparatory Training for School Service Commission Examinations.
d) Certificate course in Export-Import Management (in association with EBDCI, an Export - Import Promotional Company)
e) Career Counseling (in collaboration with career for U)
f) One year Certificate Course in Management (Assisted by Peerless)
i) One year Business Management (Affiliated to WBSCTE)
ii) One year Travel & Tourism Management
iii) One year Marketing Management (Affiliated to WBSCTE)
g) Diploma Course in Management of safety Engineering (Affiliated to WBSCTE)
h) Advanced DTP
i) DOEACC A, O, C
j) Multimedia
k) Internet & Web Page Designing
l) Visual Basic
m) `C` and UNIX
n) Hardware Engineering (Accredited by the Dept. of Electronics. Govt. of India & recognized by AICTE)
o) Financial Accounting
The Asutosh College possesses huge faculties comprising more than 150 teachers both as full time and guest faculty. A majority of the faculties teach at the postgraduate level as guest faculties and pursue research in different universities of the State. For admission the students can collect the admission form in person from the College. Each candidate can apply for a maximum of three courses. The Students eligible for direct admission should contact the respective department. This is the only college located in South Kolkata which has hostel facility. There are two hostels for boys situated at Kalighat Road and Basanta Bose Road. There is the Asutosh Memorial Hall which is housed in the main building. This hall is used for a number of academic and cultural functions. The Asutosh College possesses a well-stocked library which holds over 90,000 volumes, and reading room facilities. For sports, this college has a ground and tent at the Maidan in Kolkata and it is only one of two colleges in the city which has this facility. A Gymnasium is also there in the Annexe Building.
The Asutosh College has a job placement cell that organizes campus interviews to facilitate job proposals for the final year students. Dr. Mainak Gupta and Smt. Rupa Bhattacharya head this placement cell. The goal is to provide employment opportunities to every willing student of the college on completion his or her academic curriculum. A great deal of progress has been witnessed in this regard. Famous Indian and Multinational companies have visited the campus of this college and selected various students for recruitment and have placed them as Process-Executives, Program-Trainees, etc.
The Asutosh College is a member of NEN or National Entrepreneurship Network. Wadhwani Foundation has founded it in 2002 and it is a no-profit initiative working to inspire, educate, support, new and future entrepreneurs in India. It has been co-founded by IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Ahmedabad, BITS Pilani, SP Jain Institute of management and research, Mumbai and IBAB, Bengaluru. Faculties from Stanford, Harvard Business School and other international institutes contribute to NEN`s resources. Dr. Mainak Gupta and Dr. Debdas Roy handle this unit of the College.
The famous alumni of the Asutosh college in Kolkata in the state of West Bengal include Debabrata Marik, Dr. Saroj Ghosh, Amitabha Chakrabarti, Tamal Basu (I .P .S), Asimananda Goswami, Tapan Kumar Jana, Anjan Chatterjee, Prithviraj Chattopadhyay, Sunando Ghosal, Dr. Hirock Datta, Amitabha Sengupta, Sudipto Roy, Kaustav Banerjee, Dr. Abhijit Bhattacharyya, Rajib Mukherjee, etc.
