UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

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About

The University of Delhi, informally known as Delhi University (DU), is a collegiate public central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) by the University Grants Commission (UGC). As a collegiate university, its main functions are divided between the academic departments of the university and affiliated colleges. Consisting of three colleges, two faculties, and 750 students at its founding, the University of Delhi has since become India’s largest institution of higher learning and among the largest in the world. The University has 16 faculties and 86 departments distributed across its North and South campuses. It has 77 affiliated colleges and five other institutes. The Vice President of India serves as the University chancellor.

History

The University of Delhi was established in 1922 as a unitary, teaching and residential university by an Act of the then Central Legislative Assembly of British India. Hari Singh Gour served as the University’s first Vice-Chancellor from 1922 to 1926. Only four colleges existed in Delhi at the time: St. Stephen’s College was founded in 1881. Hindu College was founded in 1899, Zakir Husain Delhi College (then known as The Delhi College), founded in 1792 and Ramjas College, founded in 1917, which were subsequently affiliated to the University. The University initially had two faculties (Arts and Science) and approximately 750 students.

The seat of power in British India had been transferred from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911. The Viceregal Lodge Estate became the residence of the Viceroy of India until October 1933, when it was given to the University of Delhi. Since then, it has housed the office of the vice-chancellor and other offices.

When Sir Maurice Gwyer came to India in 1937 to serve as Chief Justice of British India, he became the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi. During his time, postgraduate teaching courses were introduced, and laboratories were established at the University. Members of the faculty included Daulat Singh Kothari in Physics and Panchanan Maheshwari in Botany. Gwyer has been called the “maker of the university”. He served as Vice-Chancellor until 1950.

The silver jubilee year of the University in 1947 coincided with India’s independence, and the national flag was hoisted in the main building for the first time by Vijayendra Kasturi Ranga Varadaraja Rao. In that year, there was no convocation ceremony due to the partition of India. Instead, a special ceremony was held in 1948, attended by then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, as well as by Lord Mountbatten, Lady Mountbatten, Abul Kalam Azad, Zakir Husain and Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar. Twenty-five years later, the golden jubilee celebrations of 1973 were attended by then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, Satyajit Ray, Amrita Pritam and M. S. Subbulakshmi.

Campus

There are 77 colleges and 16 faculties affiliated with the University of Delhi, spread across Delhi. North Campus and South Campus serve as the two main campuses of the University.

North Campus

Faculty of Arts

The North Campus hosts the three founding colleges of the University. It now has the School of Open Learning, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Law, and 13 colleges, including Kirori Mal College, Daulat Ram College, Hansraj College, Hindu College, Indraprastha College for Women, Lakshmibai College, Miranda House, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, Ramjas College, St. Stephen’s College, Shri Ram College of Commerce. These colleges also have off-campus academic premises in the Ashok Vihar, Pitampura, Rajouri Garden and Netaji Subhash Place neighbourhoods of Delhi. The campus also houses centres for graduate study and research, which include the Cluster Innovation Centre, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi School Of Journalism and the Ambedkar Center for Biomedical Research (ACBR).

South Campus

The South Campus was opened in 1973 as part of the University’s expansion plan. It moved to its present location on Benito Juarez Marg, near Dhaula Kuan, in 1984, and covers 69 acres. Its constituent colleges include Aryabhatta College, Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College, Gargi College, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, Jesus and Mary College, Ramanujan College, Maitreyi College, Motilal Nehru College, Ram Lal Anand College, Sri Venkateswara College, the Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, the Institute of Home Economics, Pannalal Girdharlal Dayanand Anglo Vedic College, the College of Vocational Studies, Sri Aurobindo College, Kamala Nehru College and Shaheed Bhagat Singh College.

Academics

Courses

There are 240 courses available at the University for undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG).

UG Course Intake: Management Studies, Education, Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Manufacturing Process and Automation Engineering, Biotechnology, Unani Medicine, Ayurveda

PG Course Intake Political Science, Sanskrit, English, Mathematics, Commerce, History, Chemistry, Philosophy, Economics, Others

College AIR – 15, Overall Score – 289.54, National Rating – AAAA+

There are 75 courses running under the 3-year undergraduate programme structure, with few exceptions like MBBS, BTech etc. Courses are mainly classified under the three faculties of the central University, including arts, commerce and science.

The University offers 70 postgraduate degrees. DU also offers MPhil in about 28 subjects. In addition to these, it provides 90+ Certificate courses and 28 Diplomas. There are 15 Advanced Diplomas provided in various languages. The University offers PhD courses, which may be awarded by any faculty of the University under ordinance VI-B. But, speciality and super speciality medical degrees like DM, DCh etc., could only be granted by the faculty of medical sciences. Due to a lack of surety in the quality of legal education, The Bar Council of India has issued a notification asking Delhi University (DU) to shut down law courses offered in the evening shift at its colleges. Hindi-A, political science, globalization, education

Sports

Delhi University Stadium is a rugby sevens stadium situated within the North Campus. Spread over 10,000 square metres (110,000 sq ft), the stadium has a seating capacity of 2,500 permanent and 7,500 temporary seats. Construction began in 2008, and the stadium was inaugurated in July 2010, ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. It also includes a training area for netball, boxing, women’s wrestling and athletics.

After the games, the stadium was handed over to the University by Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. Thereafter in 2011, the University initiated an upgrade plan to create a multi-purpose arena with both outdoor and indoor facilities. The University opened access to these facilities in late 2010

“Article about university of Delhi is taken from Wikipedia.”