Drawing inspiration from sagacious leader of Bihar Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha, the college was established in January 1956, at Patna High School as Gardanibagh Tutorial College, to be run in the evening shift. The objective was to facilitate academic pursuits of employees working in various departments during day time. Subsequently, this college was renamed as Anugrah Narayan College (A.N. College) Patna. In 1959, the college was shifted to its new premises. The first principal of the college was Dr. Gorakh Nath Sinha, a great economist and a contemporary of Dr. Hicks, a Nobel Laureate in Economics.
On the personal initiatives of Bihar Vibhuti Anugrah Babu, Patna Improvement Trust provided 19 acres of land to this present site but later on some of the lands were released back to farmers and eventually the college rested with 13 acres of land. The classes were shifted from Anisabad to this premises and thereafter the college blossomed and metamorphosed into present form. The erstwhile governing body had eminent personalities like Sri Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Ex-C.M.of Bihar, Mrs. Kishori Sinha, Ex-M.P, Justice K.B.N.Singh, Justice Birendra Pratap Singh, Dr. Sheo Narayan Singh and Sri Sunil Mukherjee.
To this date, the college has 24 UG departments and 23 PG departments. The college has never hesitated to take innovative measures. Keeping in view, technological march of resurgent India, the college has introduced apart from conventional courses, a large number of technological and industry driven courses. On initiative of U.G.C and Government of Bihar, many new courses like Electronics, Environmental Sciences were introduced during 1980s. In 1996, the first vocational course E.W.M(Environment and Water Management) was introduced later on, many more job oriented courses like B.C..A, B.B.M, M.C.A, M.B.A and Biotechnology were added to the list.
The multi dimensional academic activities have turned the college into a Centre for Excellence, fully eqipped to face the challenge posed by the growing demands in the field of higher education. It is a matter of immense satisfaction that distinction in teaching and research has enabled this college to have academic collboration with many reputed institutions in India and abroad.
The college is conducting pioneering research work with the funds provided by distinguished agencies like UNICEF, Department of Science and Technolo Govt. of India, U.G.C. etc. Besides, the college regularly organises National and International seminars and the conferences with the participation of important National and International delegates so that students may get exposure to advancements in different academic fields. Several faculty members of this college have also presented their research papers in different prestigious National and International Seminars and published research papers in peer reviewed journals.
The research activities in social sciences and humanities by faculty and students of this college have created a very good interface between academia and society. This has contributed prominently towards changing fabric and dynamics of the society. The college also organises seminars / symposium / workshop on socio economic and scientifically relevant topics.
The college strongly believes in the all round development of students and has always encouraged them to participate and excel in sports and cultural actvities. The achievements in different competitions have brought laurels to the institution.
It is a matter of pride for the college that its alumni are now holding senior administrative and executive positions in the public and private sectors. Alumni of this college have also joined as scientists in elite research instituions like BARC, NPL, MECON, CAPART, NEERI and CMPDI, TERI in India and NASA in U.S.A etc.
Campus selection and Placement through its Placement and Guidance Cell has become a regular feature and several renowned companies like WIPRO, CIPLA, ICICI, MAHINDRA, BAJAJ Allianz and others have visited this college last year and pickedup the students in good number.
The prestige of the college in the academic circles at International Level has been further enhanced with inclusion of A.N. Colege as a partner of Erasmus Mundas Academic Exchange Programme "EURINDIA" sponsored by European Commission. Under this programme, two faculty members and three students of this college have been awarded scholarship for research in reputed European Universities 2010 onwards. The scholars from European countries such as Germany and Netherlands are working here on a research project related to Arsenic Mitigation and Solar Energy.
Anugrah Narayan College Patna, stands commited to equipped students for the pursuit of knowledge with excellence with the objective to serve the nation and humainty.