University of Delhi

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. 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 currently consists of 16 faculties and 86 departments distributed across its North and South campuses. It has 77 affiliated colleges and 5 other institutes with an enrollment of over 132,000 regular students and 261,000 non-formal students. The Vice-President of India serves as the University's chancellor.

DU is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Association of Indian Universities, and Universitas 21, a global network of research-intensive universities.

DU has graduated many notable alumni, including seven heads of state or government and two Nobel laureates.

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 the British India. The University was originally to be named Prince Charles University, but Rai Kedarnath, counselor to the Chief Commissioner of Delhi and founder of Ramjas College, argued that if the university should fail, that would certainly antagonise the Prince. He suggested the name by which it is known today. 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 founded in 1881, Hindu College founded in 1899, Zakir Husain Delhi College (then known as The Delhi College), founded in 1692 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 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.

Present form
The University has grown into one of the largest universities in India. At present, there are 16 faculties, 86 academic departments, 77 colleges and 5 other recognised institutes spread across city, with 132,435 regular students (114,494 undergraduates and 17,941 postgraduates). There are also 261,169 students in non-formal education programmes (258,831 undergraduates and 2,338 postgraduates). DU's chemistry, geology, zoology, sociology and history departments have been awarded the status of Centres of Advanced Studies. These Centres of Advanced Studies have carved a niche for themselves as centres of excellence in teaching and research in their respective areas. In addition, a number of the university's departments are also receiving grants under the Special Assistance Programme of the University Grants Commission in recognition of their outstanding academic work.

DU is one of the most sought after institutions of higher education in India. It also has one of the highest publication counts among Indian universities.

The annual honorary degree ceremony of the University have been conferred upon several distinguished people, which includes film actor Amitabh Bachchan, former Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit, cartoonist R. K. Laxman, chemist C. N. R. Rao and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown.

Campus
There are 90 colleges and 16 faculties affiliated to the University of Delhi, spread across Delhi. North Campus and South Campus serve as the two main campuses of the University.

North Campus
North Campus hosts the three founding colleges of the university which constituted the University of Delhi when it was founded. North campus proper now has 13 colleges geographically centred on the Faculty of Arts, Science, Law and Management. which are Kirori Mal College, Daulat Ram College, Hansraj College, Hindu College, Lady Irwin College, Indraprastha College for Women, Miranda House, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, SGTB Khalsa College. Ramjas College, St. Stephen's College, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Satyawati College, Lakshmibai College, Shyam Lal College and Maharaja Agrasen College. The extended off campus also has colleges in the Ashok Vihar, Pitampura, Rajouri Garden and Netaji Subhash Place neighborhoods of Delhi. The campus also houses other centres and institutes of Delhi which include the Cluster Innovation Centre, Delhi School of Economics and Delhi School Of Journalism and also the Ambedkar Center for Biomedical Research (ACBR).

South Campus
The University of Delhi started the south campus in 1973 as an effort to cope with its expansion. It moved to its present location on Benito Juarez Marg, near Dhaula Kuan, in 1984. Nearest Delhi Metro Station is Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus.The campus is spread across 69 acre. The various departments are located in the Faculty of Arts, Inter-disciplinary, Applied Sciences and the S.P. Jain Centre for Management Studies. South Campus has the following colleges: Lady Shri Ram College, Gargi College, Aryabhatta College, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, College of Vocational Studies, Ramanujan College, Deshbandhu college, Dyal Singh College, Jesus and Mary College, Maitreyi College, Moti Lal Nehru College, Ram Lal Anand College, Pannalal Girdharlal Dayanand Anglo Vedic College, Sri Aurobindo College, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Sri Venkateswara College, Shivaji College, Rajdhani College and Acharya Narendra Dev College.

Others
Zakir Husain Delhi College, which is situated in the central part of New Delhi, is the oldest college in Delhi carrying 300 years of legacy. The East Campus is being developed with the University College of Medical Sciences as its nucleus.

Governance
The President of India is the Visitor, the Vice-President of India is the Chancellor and the Chief Justice of India is the Pro-Chancellor of the University. The Court, the Executive Council, the Academic Council and the Finance Committee are the administrative authorities of the University.

The University Court is the supreme authority of the University and has the power to review the acts of the Executive Council and the Academic Council. The Executive Council is the highest executive body of the University. The Academic Council is the highest academic body of the University and is responsible for the maintenance of standards of instruction, education and examination within the University. It has the right to advise the Executive Council on all academic matters. The Finance Committee is responsible for recommending financial policies, goals, and budgets that support the mission, values and strategic goals of the university.

Colleges
Though the colleges are all constituent to the University of Delhi, as it is a collegiate university, depending upon the funding Delhi Colleges broadly fall into three categories:
 * Colleges established by Educational or Charitable Trusts.
 * Colleges maintained by Delhi Administration, which acts as trust for them.
 * Colleges maintained by University of Delhi.

The colleges maintained by university get 100% deficit maintenance grant while the colleges run by trusts get 95% deficit grants.

The university has 65 colleges that have liberal courses in humanities, social sciences and science. Twenty-five of these colleges are affiliated with the South Campus while the others are to the North Campus. These colleges except two — Lady Irwin College and Institute of Home Economics — are undergraduates The total number of colleges under the university is 77, if the colleges that run professional courses are included. Some colleges also offer evening courses.

Faculties
The University of Delhi's 86 academic departments are divided into 16 faculties.


 * Faculty of Applied Social Sciences & Humanities
 * Faculty of Arts
 * Faculty of Commerce and Business Studies
 * Faculty of Education
 * Faculty of Interdisciplinary and Applied Sciences
 * Faculty of Law
 * Faculty of Management Studies
 * Faculty of Mathematical Sciences
 * Faculty of Medical Sciences
 * Faculty of Music and Fine Arts
 * Faculty of Open Learning: The faculty is concerned with distance education.
 * Faculty of Science
 * Faculty of Social Sciences

In the past, Faculty of Technology was offering courses in Engineering and Technology. The faculty earlier included the Delhi College of Engineering, before it was transformed into the Delhi Technological University and Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology before it was transformed into the Netaji Subhas University of Technology.

Affiliated faculties
University of Delhi has two affiliated facilities:
 * Faculty of Ayurvedic & Unani Medicine: The faculty awards to degrees to its students in Ayurvedic medicine and Unani medicine.

Centres and institutes
There are about 28 centres and institutes of DU. These are divided into four categories:

Postgraduate centres

 * Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Centre For Biomedical Research — Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Centre for Biomedical Research is a centre where multispecialty group of scientists work as a cohesive team and participate in active teaching and research in some of the frontline areas of basic and applied biomedical sciences.
 * Institute of Informatics and Communication — focuses on the field of communication and information technology.
 * Delhi School of Economics: Commonly referred to as DSE, it is a centre of post graduate learning. Started in the year 1949, the campus of the Delhi School of Economics houses the University of Delhi's Departments of Economics, Commerce, Sociology and Geography.
 * Delhi School of Journalism - The University of Delhi established the Delhi School of Journalism (DSJ) in 2017 and introduced a Five-Year Integrated Course in Journalism.

Centres

 * Cluster Innovation Centre aims to present its students with a creative and innovative study system that involves hands-on projects and connects research with application in society. CIC is supported by the National Innovation Council and aided by Union Human Resource Development Ministry.
 * D.S. Kothari Centre for Science, Ethics and Education — The principal objective of Daulat Singh Kothari Centre for Science, Ethics and Education is to raise the standard of living of our people. It is based on science & technology, and education that determines the level of prosperity, welfare and security of the people.
 * Agricultural Economics Research Centre — The centre was established and is completely funded by the Ministry of Agriculture of India to carry out research related to rural economy and agriculture in India. Since then, the centre has completed more than hubdreds of policy-oriented studies for the Ministry of Agriculture.
 * Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystem — The centre works towards strengthening awareness, research and training in priority areas of environmental management of degraded ecosystems. The centre closely coordinates with the other departments of SES, viz. Department of Environmental Biology and Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Mountain & Hill Environment on issues of biodiversity conservation, habitat loss, pollution and rehabilitation of displaced people due to developmental activities.
 * Centre for Inter-disciplinary Studies of Mountain & Hill Environment — The concept of the centre revolves around the idea that the upland areas play a crucial role in the production and regeneration of natural resources like fresh water, forests, besides sustaining a rich genetic diversity of plant and animal life.
 * The Centre for Professional Development in Higher Education is committed to provide opportunities for professional and career development to teachers across the universities of India. Keeping in view the role of higher education in national development, CPDHE helps build competence in research methodologies and pedagogy, expansion of technologies in ICT, Science and Technology, Environment and Education.
 * The Centre For Science Education & Communication is for the pursuit and teaching of science. It is an autonomous institution in which studies can be carried out by teachers, students and other interested individuals, for the generation of ideas and materials for the improvement of science education at university and school levels; and for the promotion of a wider interest in science and scientific issues, through all means of communications.
 * Developing Countries Research Centre — Its objective is to critically address important political and intellectual issues that emerge from the study of the post colonial world and integrate these insights into teaching at the undergraduate, post-graduate and research levels in the vast educational network of the University of Delhi. Scholars in Political Science, Economics, Sociology, History, Education, Philosophy, Psychology and Literature have been involved in the effort.
 * The Women's Study Development Centre is the focal point for women's and gender studies in the university. The activities of WSDC place women and gender at the centre of its inquiry focusing mostly on multidisciplinary perspectives of class, caste, race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, age. It also addresses several other contemporary socio-political issues concerning women.
 * The University Science Instrumentation Centre (USIC) is a central facility and houses sophisticated analytical instruments. Its main objective is to provide services to all researchers and students of science departments in the University and the constituent colleges of the University of Delhi.

Recognised institutes

 * The Institute of Life Long Learning (ILLL) is dedicated to the cause of those who believe that learning is not age-bound nor classroom-bound, but it takes place throughout life and in all kinds of situations.
 * The Ahilaya Bai College of Nursing is a leading nursing institute. It provides practical exposure to their students, which helps them in acquiring in-depth knowledge of nursing.
 * The Amar Jyoti Institute of Physiotherapy offers degrees in physiotherapy and the institute sees it as a profession.
 * The Durgabai Deshmukh College of Special Education is especially meant for Blind students. The undergraduate course Special Education for Visually Impaired students has a motto to empower visually impaired pupils in long run.
 * Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Institute for the Physically Handicapped is an autonomous organisation under the administrative and financial control of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India. It provides education to people with disabilities.
 * School of Rehabilitation Sciences — Its aim is to disseminate knowledge on developmental therapy and special education on rehabilitation sciences.

Affiliated institutions

 * Army Hospital (Research & Referral)
 * Central Health Education Bureau
 * G.B. Pant Hospital
 * Hindu Rao Hospital
 * Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences
 * Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences
 * Kasturba Hospital
 * National Institute of Health & Family Welfare

Courses
There are 240 courses available in University of Delhi for UG(87) and PG(153).

UG Course Intake ''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 as many as 75 courses in University running under the 3-year under-graduate 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 post-graduate degrees. DU also offers MPhil in about 28 subjects. In addition to these, it offers 90+ Certificate courses and 28 Diplomas. There are also 15 Advanced Diplomas offered in various languages. The University offers PhD courses, which may be awarded by any faculty of university under ordinance VI-B. But, speciality and super speciality medical degrees like DM, DCh etc., could only be awarded by the faculty of medical sciences. Due to lack of surety in quality of legal education, The Bar Council of India has issued a notification asking Delhi University (DU) to shut down law courses offered in evening shift at its colleges. hindi-A, political science, globalisation, education

Rankings
Internationally, the University of Delhi was ranked 481-490 in the QS World University Rankings of 2018. The same rankings ranked it 72 in Asia and 41 among BRICS nations. It was ranked 601-800 in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings of 2018, 144 in Asia and 109 among BRICS & Emerging Economies University Rankings in 2017. In 2019, it ranked 405th among the universities around the world by SCImago Institutions Rankings. In India, it was ranked 14 overall by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2018 and 7th among universities.

The Faculty of Law was ranked third in India by The Week's "Top Law Colleges In 2017."

Sports
Delhi University Stadium has a rugby sevens stadium, situated within the North Campus. Spread over 10000 sqm, 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, there after in 2011, the university initiated an extensive upgrade plan, to create a multi-purpose arena with both outdoor and indoor facilities. After it was completed, the university opened access of its facilities in late 2011.

Notable alumni
Notable alumni in Indian politics include Narendra Modi, 14th Prime Minister of India; ; lawyer and former Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley; Foreign Secretary of India Vijay Keshav Gokhale; former diplomat, writer and Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor; fifth President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed; sixth Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit; fourth Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and India's first woman Chief Minister Sucheta Kriplani; economist and former leader of the Janata Party Subramanian Swamy; fourteenth and current Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik; industrialist and former Member of Parliament Naveen Jindal; diplomat and Foreign Secretary Jyotindra Nath Dixit; former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia; former Minister of State for Corporate and Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid; former Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal; former Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni; former Union Minister for Disinvestment Arun Shourie; and former Chief Minister of Delhi and Governor of Rajasthan Madan Lal Khurana.

DU has educated numerous foreign politicians and heads of state and government including State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, third President of Malawi Bingu wa Mutharika, former Prime Minister of Nepal Girija Prasad Koirala, sixth President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, and two former Prime Ministers of Bhutan, Sangay Ngedup, and Khandu Wangchuk.

DU has also produced a large number of major actors and actresses of Indian cinema and theatre including Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, Konkona Sen Sharma, Anurag Kashyap, Arjun Rampal, Neha Dhupia, Sakshi Tanwar, Mallika Sherawat, Imtiaz Ali, Huma Qureshi, Siddharth, Shriya Saran, Vishal Bhardwaj, Aditi Rao Hydari, Shekhar Kapur, Nimrat Kaur, Kabir Khan, and Sidharth Malhotra. The CWE wrestler Shanky Singh had also pursued B.Com from Maharaja Agrasen College of Delhi University.

Notable DU alumni in poetry and literature include the Sahitya Akademi Award winning dramatist and playwright Harcharan Singh, the Urdu poet Akhtar ul Iman, and the writers Vikram Seth, Anita Desai, Amitav Ghosh, Kunzang Choden, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Ali Sardar Jafri, and the Padma Vibhushan recipient Khushwant Singh.

Notable alumni in the sciences include physicist Archana Bhattacharyya, theoretical physicist Pran Nath, SLAC physicist Jogesh Pati particle physicist Amitava Raychaudhuri, chemists Charusita Chakravarty and Anil Kumar Tyagi, engineer and "father of the pentium processor" Vinod Dham, mathematician Eknath Prabhakar Ghate, and engineer Yogi Goswami.

Notable alumni in the humanities and social sciences include professor of economics at Harvard University Gita Gopinath; economist and Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank Kaushik Basu; historians Arundhati Virmani, Ramnarayan Rawat, Upinder Singh and Usha Sanyal; professor of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University Veena Das; Kathak dancer Uma Sharma; and Bharatnatyam dancer Geeta Chandran.

Notable academics
Notable faculty members of DU include eminent historian R. S. Sharma; recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Amartya Sen; former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh; economist and a key architect of the Five-Year Plans of India Sukhamoy Chakravarty; senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and professor of economics at Columbia University Jagdish Bhagwati; and Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan, a leading woman figure in the Pakistan Movement and wife of the first Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan.