History of the college

Rae Bareli Degree College Education Trust was formed by the then MP from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha Constituency, Late Feroze Gandhi, leading social figure and educationist of Rae Bareli, Late Onkar Nath Bhargava and other prominent citizens of Rae Bareli with the objective of establishing a Degree College for the students of educationally and economically backward District of Rae Bareli.

The foundations of Rae Bareli Degree College were laid with Feroze Gandhi as the Founder President and Onkar Nath Bhargava as the Founder Managing Secretary. The College started functioning as an affiliated College of Agra University, UP.

Feroze Gandhi passed away exactly a month after laying the foundations of the Rae Bareli Degree College. Onkar Nath Bhargava carried forward Feroze Gandhi's unfinished work to fulfil the latter's vision of ensuring socio- economic progress through the development of higher education in poor and backward areas. With exemplary hard work, dedication, wisdom and dignity, Onkar Nath Bhargava took the College from its humble beginnings to its present stage of development.

The College was inaugurated by the then Vice President, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan in the presence of Indira Gandhi. The College was renamed as Feroze Gandhi College, Rae Bareli in the memory of its Founder President.

The first batch of B.A. classes started running in the College with 55 students and 06 teachers in the 05 subjects of Arts Faculty- Hindi, English, Economics, Political Science and Sociology

The College became a multi- faculty institution of higher education when the first batch of B.Sc. (Mathematics Group) classes started running in the Science Faculty with Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry as the three subjects.

Sanskrit and Psychology were added as two more subjects to the 05 subjects already being taught in the Arts Faculty.

The College was upgraded to the status of a Post Graduate College and the first batch of M.A. classes started being taught in 03 subjects of Arts Faculty- Economics, Political Science and Sociology.

 The foundation stone of the Science Block of the College was laid by the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

The foundation stone of the Jawahar Lal Nehru Library of the College was laid by the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

B.Sc. (Biology Group) was added to the Science Faculty when Zoology and Botany started being taught to B.Sc. students.

Post Graduate classes started running in Hindi.

The foundation stone of the PG Block of the College  was laid by the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

The was fortunate to have got the unique honour of having been visited together by the President, V.V. Giri, Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, Governor of U.P., Chenna Reddy and the Chief Minister of U.P., Pt. Kamlapati Tripathi. On the same day, the foundation stone of the Auditorium of the College was laid by the President, V.V. Giri.

Post Graduate classes started being taught in English, Sanskrit and Psychology in the Arts Faculty. The Science Faculty was upgraded to the level of a Post Graduate Faculty with the commencement of M.Sc. classes in Physics and Chemistry. Under Graduate level classes started being taught in Military Science, B.Com. and B.Ed.

Single biggest lot of 36 permanent teachers joined the College and began their academic careers.

Jan Sangh leader and MP, Atal Bihari Bajpai, who later became Prime Minister, visited the College to address the students.

With the establishment of Kanpur University, Kanpur, Feroze Gandhi College was transferred from the jurisdiction of Agra University to the jurisdiction of Kanpur University, Kanpur as an affiliated College.

M.Sc. classes started being taught in Zoology and Botany.

The Commerce Faculty was upgraded to the level of a Post Graduate Faculty when M.Com. classes started being taught in the College.

The UP Political Science Confrence was held in the College with the participation of more than 200 delegates from all over the State.

The Auditorium of the College was inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi and it was renamed as Indira Gandhi Auditorium in the memory of the former Prime Minister and MP from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha Constituency, Indira Gandhi.

The Conference of SAARC Countries on Environmental Management was held in the Indira Gandhi Auditorium of the College.

The Silver Jubilee year celebrations of the Military Science Department of the College concluded with a Confrence on National Security which was addressed as the keynote speaker by Lt. Gen. O.P. Kaushik (Retd.), former General- Officer- Commanding- in- Chief (GOC- in- C), Eastern Army Command and Founder Inspector General, National Security Guards (NSG), former Vice Chancellor, Kurukshetra University, Haryana.

The UGC Chairman, Dr. Hari Gautam, Chief Secretary of UP, Yogendra Narayan and Vice Chancellor of CSJM University, Kanpur visited the College to adress the teachers and the students together.

Acharya Mahaveer Prasad Dwivedi Reading Hall was inaugurated by the Minister for Higher Education, U.P., Prof. N.K.S. Gaur.

The College was assessed by the NAAC in the First Cycle and accredited in B+ Grade with CGPA of 2.76.

The College was assessed again by the NAAC in the Second Cycle and accredited in A Grade with CGPA of 3.01.

Feroze Gandhi College became an associated College of the University of Lucknow, Lucknow with an amendment to that effect in the U.P. State Universities Act, 1973 which redefined the jurisdiction of the University of Lucknow and that of the CSJM University, Kanpur.

The College started running the First Semesters of UG and PG Academic Programmes as an associated College of the University of Lucknow and successfully implemented the NEP, 2020 based curricula prescribed by the University of Lucknow.

Er. Atul Bhargava was elected as the Managing Secretary of the College by the AGM of Rae Bareli Degree College Education Trust.

The Founder Managing Secretary of the College, Onkar Nath Bhargava passed away at the age of 95 after having served as the Managing Secretary of the College for nearly 06 decades.