The college was founded by Sir Surendranath Banerjee. Surendranath Banerjee (10th November 1848 to 6th August 1925) was one of the greatest stalwarts of India’s freedom movement. In addition to being a great patriot, he was a polymath, orator, and statesman. As a visionary, he realized that education was the weapon to fight the evil of colonialism and attain the sovereignty of mind. Surendranath Banerjee was one of the great pioneers in the history of India’s freedom movement. He is regarded as a great patriot and scholar. As an educationist, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the cause of higher education in the country. In 1882, Surendranath Banerjee took over the charge of Presidency School. Early in 1884, this school was converted to Presidency Institution. Later in the same year it became a degree college named ‘Ripon College. In 1885, a Law department was added and a new college took shape as Ripon Law College. In 1949, two years after attaining independence in 1947, Surendranath College was formed, named after the illustrious founder. The establishment of the Commerce section in 1940 and the Evening Science section in 1947 eventually made way to the formation of Surendranath Evening College in 1961.

From the outset (1961), the college had affiliation for Commerce, Science and Arts with Pass and Honours courses in Commerce. In the year 1996, the University of Calcutta affiliated Honours course in Bengali was introduced. The introduction of Computer Science, Electronic Science (now Electronics), Electronic Equipment Maintenance (Vocational) at degree level in 1998-99 Honours in Marketing in Commerce stream in 2004-05 has been an important step towards making this college a model evening college. It is a matter of pride that Electronic Equipment Maintenance was introduced in this college for the first time in the entire Eastern region of India. Besides, the University of Calcutta affiliated Honours in Electronic Science (now Electronics), English, Hindi, and Urdu. The university has also affiliated Geography as a general course. Since then, honours courses have been started on Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.