Amidst the decades old political turmoil and dismal lack of higher educational facilities, especially for women in the mid-eighties, Pranabananda Women’s College was established as the first women’s college in Dimapur, Nagaland in 1991. It received recognition and permanent affiliation under Nagaland University in the year 2004 and got recognition under sections 2(f) and 12(B) of the UGC Act. Guided by its motto “Tamso Ma JyotirGamaya” which means “Lead us from darkness towards the light”, the college imparts education with a mission responding to the demands of time and specific needs of society, taking into consideration the social, economic, political and administrative challenges. The college was jointly founded and managed by Bharat Sevashram Sangh (Kolkata), a reputed global, philanthropic and charitable organisation and a host of senior citizens of Dimapur with Late Manik Bhattacharjee as the first Chief Organiser and the Founder Secretary.

Pranabananda Women’s College vision was to impart “Holistic education for the empowerment of women” and was guided by the philosophy that there is a latent potentiality in each individual, which properly harnessed makes the individual an asset to the society. This leads to national objective for creating a strong base for human resource development. The college imparts quality and holistic education in Arts and Commerce at the undergraduate level and Sociology at Post-Graduate level. In 2016, the college became the first Women’s college in Nagaland to be Accredited by NAAC and the reaccreditation was assessed in 2^ndcycle by NAAC in the year 2023.

Pranabananda Women’s College has attained the trust and reputation for its excellence, discipline, inclusiveness and service to the society. Serving the society for more than 3 (three) decades, Pranabananda Women’s College has also reasonably achieved the goal of the pioneers to provide higher education to the girls of Nagaland.

The dynamic change in the education system of India with the introduction of NEP 2020 and implementation of FYUGP under NEP 2020 by the Nagaland University in 2022, the managing authority of Pranabananda Women’s College decided to provide opportunity to both the gender to avail the holistic and quality education provided by the Institution. In order to create employability Skills among the youths in the society, the college will offer Multidisciplinary Courses, Value added courses and Skill enhancement courses to the youths of the Society. With these objectives, the nomenclature of the college is changed to “Pranab College” for boys and girls with its motto “Educate Encourage Enlighten”.