74 Years in Women’s Education

Prasannadeb Women’s College—the first and the largest institution in North Bengal imparting higher education exclusively to women—is located on the bank of the river Karala amidst a serene emerald-green landscape at the south-eastern part of Jalpaiguri town. The college, affiliated to the University of North Bengal and accredited in the second cycle by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with B++ grade (score 2.88) in 2016, offers Honours Programs and Program Courses in seventeen different subjects in Arts, Science and Business Administration faculties. As add on courses, it also offers Career Oriented Programmes (COP) in Travel and Tourism Management and Computer Applications. The immense flexibility of the college is manifest in its adoption and adaptation to Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) in 2018-19 and New Education Policy (NEP) in 2023-24 without resorting to any compromise of its standards.

The College, founded on the pioneering philanthropy of the donor royal couple Late Raja Prasannadeb Raikat and Rani Ashrumati Devi, began its mission with only 10 students on 31st August, 1950. Tireless efforts of the employees and the sustained support of patrons had seen the College through the toddling time of the initial years and helped it develop into a premier Women’s College in North Bengal with the passage of time. Now it is the only Women’s college in North Bengal offering undergraduate Course in all the major Arts and Science subjects with adequate library and updated laboratory facilities.

Under the efficient and dynamic leadership of the Principal and relying on the committed and compassionate service of 75 teachers and 19 non-teaching staff, the College at present is catering to the need of around 3000 students. The three student hostels in its sprawling campus provide boarding facilities to 250 students. The fully computerized Central library of the College has a spacious reading room and a very rich stock of around 35000 volumes of books and over 6000 academic journals. The library also offers E-document printing and reproduction facilities to the students.

With the objective of maximization of human potential of its learners, the college puts due emphasis on co-curricular activities. The four units of NSS aim at enthusing students to open up new horizons of social awareness through various social activities like putting up a week-long camp in the adopted village. The UGC-sponsored Career and Counselling Cell provides technical, moral and mental support to students in their endeavor to compete for a job. The Centre for Women’s Studies, approved and sponsored by the UGC in 2007, conducts seminars and workshops round the year on issues relating to women’s rights and responsibilities as citizens of India. The Alumni Association of the College, registered in 2004, also plays an important role by providing a site of mutually-benefiting enterprise—a site of meeting for past and present students. The Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of the College takes an active and productive role in quality sustenance. The study tours/ seminars/ symposia/ workshops, organized by the college more often than not, also provide greater exposure to the students.

The augmented infrastructural facilities of the college in recent years, courtesy the fund received from RUSA and the North Bengal Development Ministry of the West Bengal Government, have opened up scope for further development of this oldest institution of higher education for women, which is looking eagerly forward to celebrating its Platinum Jubilee next year.