The Serampore Trio - William Ward, William Carey, & Joshua Marshman, started the college with 37 students in 1818. [4] King Frederick VI of Denmark [5] originally granted a Royal Charter giving Serampore College the status of a university to confer degrees on 23rd February 1827.[6] It became the third Danish University after the ones in Copenhagen and Kiel.[7] With the later establishment of the University of Calcutta in 1857 the arts, science and commerce parts of Serampore College were affiliated to the University of Calcutta.