Vidyasagar College was founded in the year 1872. The college had its origin in the Calcutta Training School that was founded by Thakurdas Chakraborty in 1859. In 1864, the school came to be known as the Metropolitan Institution. In 1872, the University of Calcutta granted affiliation to the Institution for the First Arts (FA) standard. The birth of the first Private and truly secular college in the Presidency of Bengal was hailed as a landmark in the academic and cultural ethos of India. It was the great Indian educationalist and social reformer Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar who was associated with the College from its very inception in 1872. The college is a living monument of the untiring labours of Vidyasagar who is known to be the founder of the college. After the passing away of the founder in 1891, the name, Metropolitan Institute, was changed to Vidyasagar College in 1917.