The University of Calcutta was founded in 1857, existing initially as an affiliating university, holding examination and degree awarding powers over colleges spread primarily across northern India. From 1904 onwards supervision of teaching also became one of its responsibilities and growth was such that by the mid 1970s it had 13 colleges, 16 postgraduate facilities and over 150 affiliated colleges under its remit, making it one of the largest universities in the world.