Senate of Serampore University,Serampore

The Senate of Serampore College (University) is located in Serampore Town, in Hooghly District, West Bengal, India.

Serampore was granted the status of university in 1829, making it India's first university. The college was founded by the missionaries Joshua Marshman, William Carey and William Ward (the Serampore trio), to give an education in Arts and Sciences to students of every "caste, colour or country" and to train a ministry for the growing Church in India (See: Christianity in India).The Senate of Serampore College (University) runs the academic administration of all its affiliated theological colleges. The Council of Serampore College holds a Danish Charter and had the power to confer degrees in any subject, which it currently exercises only for conferring theological degrees as recommended by the Senate.

Since Serampore was then a Danish colony, King Frederick VI, the King of Denmark, issued Serampore College its Royal Charter of Incorporation on February 23, 1827, in Copenhagen, Denmark (Charter, 1, Charter, 2, Charter, 3). The charter came 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. At its opening, the Trio released a prospectus which proposed "A College for the instruction of Asiatic Christian and other Youth in Eastern Literature and European Science." The College was open to all persons of any caste or creed, and the founders ensured that no denominational test would apply to faculty members. The charter has also been confirmed by the Bengal Govt Act. IV of 1918.