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Allahabad University

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Allahabad University is an institution of higher learning located in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was established on 23 September 1887.

Contents

[edit] History

The University of Allahabad, the fourth modern University established in India (after the Universities of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras), has a sound academic tradition and several extra-ordinary achievements to its credit. It began its career in 1887 as an affiliating and examining body for graduate and Post-graduate degrees, with a classical orientation in different branches of learning and the responsibility for secondary education as well.

From 1904 it began organising its own teaching Departments and instituted doctoral research programmes. In 1921, it was re-organised as a unitary teaching and residential University and over the next few years it shed the burden of conducting secondary-level examinations and its affiliated Colleges were transferred to the Agra University.

In 1951, the University, while maintaining its fundamental unitary character, recognised some local institutions as Associated Colleges, which are authorised to teach undergraduate courses under the Faculties of Arts, Commerce, Science and Law. During the four decades after its re-organisation, the University earned national and international recognition as a premier institution. The University has had the privilege of having on its rolls a host of distinguished politicians and statesmen including one President and two Vice-Presidents of the Republic, two former Prime Ministers, several Union and State ministers, at least four Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, besides a large number of senior bureaucrats. The list of eminent educationists, scientists, historians, litterateurs, economists and philosophers produced by the University is too large to be enumerated here. In view of its attainments and its leading position among the Universities of U. P., the State Government accorded it formal recognition in July 1992 as a ‘Premier Institution’ (Vishesh Agrani Sanstha).

In 1987 the University completed one hundred years of its glorious existence. During the centenary celebrations, the demand for according the Central status to the University was made unanimously by the students, faculty and employees. After a sustained campaign and several hiccups, the Government of India finally acceded to the public demand and presented in December 2004 a Bill in the Parliament proposing to recognise the University of Allahabad as an ‘Institution of National Importance’ and restoring the Central character of the University that it had enjoyed before 1921. Both Houses of the Parliament duly passed The University of Allahabad Act, 2005 in May 2005. On 23rd June 2005, His Excellency the President of India gave his assent to the said Bill declaring the University as an Institution of National Importance and restoring its Central character. The Government of India issued the gazette notification for the same on July 11, 2005 and the University started functioning as a Central University on July 14, 2005 making it a red-letter day in its 118 years old history.

The University of Allahabad Act, 2005 has provided for five Faculties (Arts, Commerce, Law, Medicine and Science), three University Institutes namely the Institute of Inter-Disciplinary Studies, the Institute of Professional Studies and the National Centre of Experimental Mineralogy and Petrology, one University Centre namely the Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, one University college i.e. the Motilal Nehru Medical college and Swarup Rani Nehru Hospital, Allahabad, three Constituent Institutes viz. the Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad, the Harish Chandra Research Institute of Mathematics and Mathematical Physics, Allahabad and the Kamla Nehru Post-graduate Medical Institute, Allahabad and eleven local institutions as Constituent Colleges of the University. However Harish Chandra Research Institute of Mathematics and Mathematical Physics, Allahabad and Kamla Nehru Post-graduate Medical Institute, Allahabad has sought disaffiliation from the University and the Executive Council of the University has also endorsed their request for disaffiliation. Further action in this matter would be taken once the Honourable President of India, the Visitor of the University, gives his consent to the recommendation of the University’s Executive Council. The controversy related to the merger of the Motilal Nehru Medical College with the University has been resolved. The Honourable High Court of Allahabad has recently passed an order directing that the integration of the Medical College with the University be completed by October 1, 2006. The affiliation of the S. P. Mukherjee Government Degree College with the University has however yet to be finalised because of the objections raised by the Government of Uttar Pradesh.

[edit] Achievements

In 118 years of its existence, the University has, despite severe resource constraints, particularly uncertain funding and populist demands which act as an inertial drag on initiatives for academic modernisation, shown remarkable resilience in adapting itself to the concurrent contours of academic development by constantly re-defining or re-structuring its teaching curricula and methods and its research programmes and methodology, and responding constructively to the changing needs of Indian Society. Plagued by the problems common to the State Universities all over the country, the University has had to struggle hard to cope with the rapid increase in the enrolment of students with concomitant problems for maintaining the high quality of academic endeavours, ensuring appropriate per capita levels of availability and access of academic resources and amenities and sustaining ideal quanta of face-to-face interaction between faculty and students. Notwithstanding the severe constraints under which it was obliged to function in the past, the University has made consistent efforts to move slowly but steadily ahead on the path of progress. Several new Departments have been instituted and established Departments have ventured into new directions, in order to keep up with developments in the academic world.

The University has had considerable success in making regular ‘course corrections’ for keeping pace with up-to-date trends in teaching-learning, research and academic/community extension activities. Two of its Departments namely Ancient History, Culture & Archaeology and Psychology are recognised as UGC Centres of Advanced Study, and five more are (or have been) UGC Departments of Special Assistance. Several Departments in the Faculty of Science are covered by the COSIST and FIST Programmes. Several major research projects awarded by national R & D agencies have been successfully completed, and several Departmental or Inter-Departmental Research Groups and individual faculty members are currently engaged in carrying out numerous other projects.

These projects, as well as earlier and current collaborative academic programmes with agencies such as the CSIR, the DST, the DBT, the DOD, the DoS, the DRDO, ICSSR, ICHR, UGC, NCERT, Planning Commission etc., have helped augment and expand research facilities and infrastructure. The Physics Department has, for instance, established a Nanophosphor Application Centre with the financial assistance of the DST. The University has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nano Crystal Technology, New York for the Centre’s development. The Centre would undertake advanced studies in the synthesis and characterisation of Nanophosphor material and Nanobiotechnology. The Physics Department is also planning to establish a High Fluence Low Energy Ion Beam facility with the help of the DST. The CSIR has granted a ‘Chair’ to the University on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and the University has already prepared a Plan of Action in the IPR field. The UGC has also established the M. N. Saha Chair, the Munshi Prem Chand Chair and the Nirala Chair in the Physics, Urdu and Hindi Departments respectively.

The University has well-established professional programmes in Business Management, Electronic and Tele-communication Engineering, Law, Medicine, Educational Training, Human Resource Development and Management, Journalism and Mass Communication, etc. In accordance with the UGC Scheme for vocational courses, vocational options have been provided in the graduate degree programmes. The University has also been developing independent Post-graduate professional courses in the light of emerging requirements for specialised personnel in various fields, and several such courses are being offered by the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS), which has been set up to articulate specific linkages between the ‘world of learning’ and the ‘world of living’. The Institute is offering short term and medium term professional courses on self-financial basis. Centre of Food Technology and Centre of Computer Education are two activities, which are ongoing and offering Diploma Certificate Courses. Professional courses in few other areas will be supported under the umbrella of this Institute.

The University has established the Institute of Inter-disciplinary Studies (IIDS) in order to pursue a non-conventional paradigm for research activities and provide an autonomous platform (free from the often vexatious formalities and time consuming procedures involved in inter-Departmental interactions) for focussed inter- and multi-disciplinary explorations in Post-graduate programmes and research. The IIDS is designed as a loose collective of Centres dedicated to different areas. Centres for Atmospheric and Ocean Studies, Space Sciences, Biotechnology, Mobile Communication for Developing Countries (CMCDC), Bio-medical NMR and Consciousness Studies have already started working. Other planned Centres will cover well-focussed inter-disciplinary areas such as Environmental Science, Genetic Engineering, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Human Resource Development, Globalisation and its Effects, etc. It is already conducting a Post-graduate programme and several high-end research projects. Other Post-graduate courses and M. Phil. and D. Phil. programmes are on the anvil. The activities of the IIDS are funded by project and other grants from national agencies and Institutes, by the faculty members of the University. The IIDS is seeking special grants for infrastructure and research faculty and staff to enlarge the scope of its activities. The UGC has recently sanctioned quite a few teaching positions for several centres of IIDS.

The University has also instituted an inter-disciplinary undergraduate Science programme (Applied Sciences) with the objective of inculcating a cross-disciplinary approach involving the Physical Sciences and Biology streams, both, to give appropriate grounding for higher Post-graduate studies in such subjects as Biophysics, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Bio informatics, Environmental Science, NanoScience, Nano Technology, Medical Physics, etc. Several Departments are also gearing up their Post-graduate programmes with particular stress on futuristic possibilities and planning professional courses as self-financing package.

Many University Departments have initiated or worked out wholly or partly self-financing Diploma and Proficiency courses, some of them in the modular pattern, by themselves or in co-operation with other Departments. The Department of Psychology, for instance, had instituted a highly successful professional inter-disciplinary M. Psy. (Master of Psychology) programme in Human Resource Development and Management in the Ninth Plan period. This programme is however not being offered in the current academic year because of the shortage of faculty. It is also proposed to rename the programme, in view of the recommendation of the UGC, as Master in Human Resource Development and Management. The Department has, apart from significant outreach activities, also implemented the concept of ‘Cafeteria choice’ courses / modules, credit courses in other Departments and obligatory field studies in their Post-graduate programme. The Regional Learning Resource and Documentation Centre, which was set up by the Department in the Ninth Plan period, is to be further strengthened in the Eleventh Plan period. The University has also established a world class autonomous Centre for Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences under the University Grants Commission scheme of UPE during the Tenth Plan. Specialists from as diverse disciplines as Cognitive Psychology, Computer Science, Linguistics, Neuro- Science, Philosophy, and Psychology work together in the Centre to offer Masters and D.Phil courses in Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences.

The Geography Department has created a modern Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System (RS/GIS) unit (as a Central facility) during the Ninth Plan, for research, database development and the conduct of a Post-graduate Diploma course in RS/GIS.

The Department of Economics has been given a ‘Chair’ by the Planning Commission to promote research in the field of planning and development. The syllabi incorporate new areas of teaching and research in Environmental Economics and the economic and societal impact of Globalisation on India, with particular emphasis on projects / studies on its social, political, legal and cultural aspects. The research base is being further strengthened by the upgradation of the Statistics Laboratory. The Department has also introduced a one year Post-graduate Diploma Course in Foreign Trade.

The University has taken advantage of the rapid advances and expansion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and has attempted to move in step with the ICT Revolution, within the framework of available facilities and funds. The salient features of the application of ICT in the University are as follows:

  • Computerisation was initiated in the admission and examination processes in the mid-1980s and these processes are now completely computerised. In the course of the past decade computerisation has been extended, mainly through the Administrative Computer Centre (established in 1984), to establishment records and procedures, finances, accounts and examination records. Work is under way to computerise the proceedings and records of University bodies, student records, the management of academic and research activities, personnel management and other fields of academic and administrative functioning. The administrative units now have their own dedicated computer systems that are being linked up through the campus-networking project.
  • The University Computer Centre (UCC) was instituted in the early 1980s with UGC assistance as a central unit for researchers requiring EDP facilities and for imparting training / experience in computer methods to faculty, research scholars and students. There has been regular system upgradation of the UCC, and it is now also being utilised to provide familiarisation / training to staff in the use and application of computers. The Institute of Professional Studies is conducting similar programmes of computer education for students as short-term modular courses.
  • Almost all the Science Faculty Departments as well as some of the Social Science / Management Departments had been equipped with up-to-date computer systems by the end of the Eighth Plan and the objective of the Ninth Plan to upgrade existing systems and provide computer systems to the remaining Departments has been largely achieved. The Departments are using their ICT facilities for research as well as teaching activities.
  • During the Ninth Plan, the University established the Central Internet Access Facility (CIAF) and commenced the networking of the Departments and other academic / research / administrative units. Networking between the Departments and units in the Arts, Science, Commerce and Law Campuses has almost been completed. This project will realise the objective of optimum sharing of Departmental resources and enable cost-efficient global access (through the CIAF) for academic and research work.
  • The programme of computerisation and global networking of the Central, Faculty and Departmental Libraries has moved beyond the planning stage. An elaborate Electronic Library is being planned as well.
  • The University has worked out a proposal to institute Web-based education programmes, initially through modular professional courses for graduates and then with specially designed courses on Indian Culture, Archaeology and other areas involving several Departments.

The University gives strong emphasis to ‘outreach’ programmes, in recognition of the need for relating the academic activities of the University with social imperatives. Such programmes envisage the integration of extension with research proposals and teaching curricula. The purpose is to involve the University Departments in serving the developmental and other needs of specific segments of the community. The University recognises the need for co-operation with various Government agencies and NGOS in extension initiatives. Efforts are also underway to establish linkages with the corporate world and imparting training to the students in the areas of mutual interests without disturbing the regular academic schedule of the University.

[edit] Academic Departments

The following are the different academic departments offering degrees and performing research at the University.

[edit] Faculty of Arts

  • Anthropology
  • Arabic and Persian
  • Education
  • English & Modern European Languages
  • Geography
  • Hindi
  • Medieval & Modern History
  • Music & Performing Arts
  • Philosophy
  • Physical Education
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Sanskrit
  • Urdu
  • Journalism and Mass Communication
  • U G C - Academic Staff College

[edit] Faculty of Commerce

  • Commerce
  • Economics
  • Motilal Nehru Institute of Research & Business Administration (MONIRBA)

[edit] Faculty of Law

  • Law

[edit] Faculty of Science

  • Bio-Chemistry & Home Science
  • Botany
  • Chemistry
  • Defence and Strategic Studies
  • Earth & Planetary Sciences
  • Electronics & Communication
  • Mathematics & Statistics
  • Photography
  • Physics
  • Zoology
  • Bioinformatics & Biotechnology

[edit] Institute of Inter Disciplinary Studies

[edit] Campus

The campus of the University is spread over in the sprawling city of Allahabad.

[edit] Hostels

Allahabad University has a number of famous residential hostels that house students for the duration of their study. The hostels not only provide accommodation but are also breeding grounds for the leaders of modern India, as a number of past and present politicians, administrators, academicians and literary figures stayed at these hostels. Some of the hostels are:

  • Tarachand Hostel
  • Holland Hall
  • Ganganath Jha Hostel
  • Priyadarshani Hostel (Girls)
  • Diamond Jublee Hostel
  • Sarojini Naidu Hostel (Girls)
  • P. C. Banarjee Hostel
  • Sir Sunderlal hostel
  • Hindu Hostel
  • Amarnath Jha Hostel
  • International Hostel
  • Shatabdi Hostel

[edit] Colleges

The following colleges are affiliated to Allahabad University:

  • Allahabad Degree College
  • C.M.P Degree College
  • Arya Kanya Degree College
  • Jagat Taran Girls Degree College
  • Ishwar Sharan Degree Collage

[edit] Alumni

Famous alumni include:

[edit] Eminent faculty

Men of eminence who helped in raising the status and standards of the university include:

[edit] External links

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