Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur, started functioning as an autonomous institution on Thursday. The college, an affiliate of Calcutta University (CU), is run by Ramakrishna Mission monks.

“We are happy that Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur, has started functioning as an autonomous institution. The responsibilities of the college have increased now,” state higher education minister Sudarshan Ray Chaudhuri said while inaugurating the first-year undergraduate classes.

The state government had granted autonomy to the college last year but it couldn’t launch independent courses during the last academic session as first-year classes had begun when autonomy was granted.

At the inauguration on Thursday, CU vice-chancellor Suranjan Das said the college should try to provide postgraduate courses in all the undergraduate subjects offered so that students don’t face difficulties in pursuing masters programmes.

Swami Asaktananda, the secretary of the college and Swami Suparnananda, the college principal, also spoke at the inaugural function.

In 2006, St Xavier’s College became the first general degree college in the state to get autonomy. A BEd college in Belur run by the Ramakrishna Mission monks has also been granted autonomy.