page_title: Bombay Presidency
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Bombay Presidency / Education
caption_attribution_description: English: The University of Bombay Hall and Rajabai Tower. Both buildings designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. The tower is 280 ft. high. From India Illustrated magazine.
context_page_description: The Bombay Presidency, also known as Bombay and Sind from 1843 to 1936 and the Bombay Province, was an administrative subdivision of British India headquartered in the city of Bombay,
  The Bombay Presidency was created when the city of Bombay was leased in fee tail to the East India Company by a Royal Charter from the King of England, Charles II, who had in turn acquired it on May 11, 1661, when his marriage treaty with Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, placed the islands of Bombay in possession of the English Empire, as part of Catherine's dowry to Charles. The English East India Company transferred its Western India headquarters from Surat, its first colony in that region, to Bombay in 1687. The Presidency was brought under British Parliament control along with other parts of British India through Pitt's India Act. Major territorial acquisitions were made during the Anglo-Maratha Wars when the whole of the Peshwa's dominions and much of the Gaekwad's sphere of influence were annexed to the Bombay Presidency in different stages till 1818.
context_section_description: The University of Bombay was established in 1857, and had an administration consisting of a chancellor, vice-chancellor and fellows. The governor of Bombay was ex-officio chancellor. The education department was under a director of public instruction, who was responsible for the administration of the department in accordance with the general educational policy of the state. The native states generally adopted the government system. Baroda and the Kathiawar states employed their own inspectors. In 1905 the total number of educational institutions was 10,194 with 593,431 pupils. There were ten art colleges, of which two were managed by government, three by native states, and five were under private management. It was in the year 1913 that the first college of commerce in Asia, Sydenham College, was established. According to the census of 1901, out of a population of 25.5 million nearly 24 million were illiterate.
caption: University Hall and Rajabai Tower, ca 1905
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