Cotton University is a public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established in 2017 through an Act of the Assam Legislative Assembly that merged the erstwhile Cotton College State University and Cotton College. The institution traces its origins to Cotton College, founded in 1901, which was the oldest institute of higher education in Assam and the wider Northeast India region.
| Name | Cotton University |
|---|---|
| Former names | Cotton College; Cotton College State University |
| Type | Public state university |
| Established (university) | 2017 |
| Predecessor founded | 1901 (Cotton College) |
| Founder of Cotton College | Sir Henry Stedman Cotton |
| Location | Guwahati, Assam, India |
| Enabling legislation | The Cotton University Act, 2017 |
Cotton College was established in 1901 by Sir Henry Stedman Cotton, who was then the Chief Commissioner of the British province of Assam. For several decades it functioned as the principal seat of higher learning in the region and held the distinction of being the oldest such institution in Assam and Northeast India.
In 1948, following Indian independence, Cotton College became a constituent college of Gauhati University. It continued in that capacity until 2011, when the Government of Assam enacted Act XIX of 2011 to establish Cotton College State University, with Cotton College as part of the new institutional set-up.
The coexistence of the college and the state university created administrative and structural issues. To resolve these, the Assam Legislative Assembly passed the Cotton University Act, 2017, which merged Cotton College State University and Cotton College into a single unified institution, Cotton University.
In May 2020, Cotton University was placed in the 150–200 band of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). As of 2024, the university was ranked 373rd in the NIRF.
As the institutional successor to Cotton College, Cotton University carries forward more than a century of academic heritage in Northeast India. Its founding in 1901 marked the beginning of formal higher education in the region, and the 2017 reorganisation consolidated its legacy under a unified university structure based in the Assam state capital, Guwahati.