After the great famine of 1866, the people of Odisha and some liberal Britons wanted to start a college at Cuttack.

Thomas Edward Ravenshaw, officiating commissioner of Odisha Division made the government of Bengal realise the difficulties of Oriya students in getting college educations and succeeded in obtaining permission to start collegiate classes in the Cuttack Zilla School.

Commissioner Ravenshaw proposed to convert the Collegiate School into a full-fledged degree college.

Ravenshaw took up the matter as an object of personal interest and guaranteed the collection of the required amount.

H. J. Reynolds, secretary to the government of Bengal, requested the government of India to sanction the incidental charges and the post of the principal on the additional condition of meeting half the monthly expenses by public donation.

Altogether 94 graduates were produced by the closing year of the 19th century and the student strength had increased to 97.

The science stream remained confined only to intermediate level until 1912 when Bihar and Odisha were separated from Bengal.

Although there was some public resistance for the change of affiliation, the then commissioner rightly supported the transfer by writing "Divorced from the Calcutta University, its progress would be rapid and in course of time it should be able to supply every educational need of the people of Odisha."

Accordingly, the affiliation was transferred to newly created Patna University on 1 October 1917.

While laying the foundation stone of the present building in November 1919 Sir Edward Gait, the governor of Bihar and Odisha wished that this mighty monument would one day grow into a university.

Maharaja of Kanika Sri Rajendra Narayan Bhanjadeo generously donated Rs.

After the shifting of the main library to the centenary building, the old premises houses the journal section.

The staff position of Ravenshaw College was strengthened with the appointment, in 1918, of scholars such as Sir Jaudunath Sarkar and R. P. Khosla as professors of History and Economics respectively.

Honours classes in Physics, Chemistry and Botany were opened from July 1930 and steps were initiated to start postgraduate teaching in all subjects which was fulfilled after Odisha became a separate province.

The college remained affiliated to Patna University even after the separation of Odisha from Bihar in 1936.

It had on its staff such great scholars as Artaballav Mohanty, Jadunath Sarkar, Sir Ross Masood, Pranakrushna Parija, Balabhadra Prasad, Acharya Jogeschandra Vidyanidhi, Mahendra Kumar Rout, Baba Kartar Singh, Parasuram Mishra, Shri P.A.

Indian Science Congress Association meet of 1962 was held in Ravenshaw College Quadrangle.

Admissions to various undergraduate, graduate, master of philosophy and doctoral degree programs are made through entrance examinations held every year.

The campus is located very close to the Cuttack railway station, and is only about a 45 minutes’ drive from the Bhubaneswar airport.

[6] The university has acquired another 140 acres of land on the bank of the river Mahanadi, to build the second campus for its new disciplines of management and applied sciences.

[8] Mahanadi and Lalitgiri hostels with capacity to accommodate 600 girls and 400 boys were recently inaugurated by Naveen Patnaik.

[10] However, it has faced repeated problems and failed to provide continuous broadcasting services to the students and local community.