Gauhati University
Gauhati University also known as GU located in Jalukbari, Guwahati, is the oldest university in Northeast India. It was established in 1948. It is a teaching-&-affiliating university.
![]() | |
Motto | Vidyayo Sadhayeta |
---|---|
Motto in English | Achievement through Learning/Knowledge |
Type | Public – Research |
Established | 26 January 1948 |
Chancellor | Governor of Assam |
Vice-Chancellor | Pratap Jyoti Handique |
Academic staff | 341 (2018)[1] |
Administrative staff | 1167 (2018)[1] |
Students | 5411 (2018)[1] |
Undergraduates | 1290 (2018)[2] |
Postgraduates | 3753 (2018)[2] |
398 (2018)[2] | |
Location | , , 26.1537°N 91.6634°E |
Campus | Urban, total 508 acres (2.06 km2)[1] |
Acronym | GU |
Affiliations | UGC NAAC AIU AICTE ACU |
Website | https://www.gauhati.ac.in/ |
It is accredited grade "A" by National Assessment and Accreditation Council.[3] Starting with 18 affiliated colleges and 8 Post Graduate Departments in 1948, Gauhati University, today, has 39 Post Graduate Departments, besides IDOL (Institute of Distance and Open Learning), a constituent Law and Engineering College. It has 341 affiliated colleges offering undergraduate and post graduate courses in the faculties of Arts, Science, Commerce, Law, and Engineering. Gauhati University is a member of the Association of Indian Universities and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.[4]
History
![](../I/KK_Handique_and_S_Radhakrishnan_at_the_1st_Convocation_of_Gauhati_University.jpg.webp)
The first public demand was made at the annual session of the Assam Association held at Sivasagar in 1917. In 1940, the Government appointed S. K. Bhuyan as Special Officer with the task of collecting relevant information on the selection of site and related matters.[5] The university was established by an act of the State Legislature: the Gauhati University Act 1947 (Assam Act, XVI of 1947) of the government of Assam in 1948. The first court meeting of the university was held on 26 January 1948, which is considered the foundation day, at the old Sudmerson Hall of Cotton College, Guwahati.[6]
Gauhati University started functioning as an affiliating, teaching and residential university in a few temporary buildings in Guwahati, with K.K Handique as the first Vice-Chancellor, Phanidhar Dutta, Sailandhar Rajkhowa and Sarat Kumar Dutta were selected as the Registrar, Treasurer and Secretary of University Classes respectively. The emblem of the University, selected from among many submitted, was designed by T. Mukherjee, a textile designer of Ahmedabad. Two Sanskrit words inscribed on it – Vidyaya Sadhayeta (meaning achievement through learning) – indicate the motto of the University.[4] It had 17 affiliated colleges and eight Post Graduate Departments on its establishment.[5] The University which started functioning from the city center was shifted to the present campus in 1955–56.
Campus
- View from GUIST building
- BKB Auditorium
- Gauhati University Institute of Science and Technology (GUIST)
- Entrance to Dr. H.K Baruah Regional Botanical Resource Centre
The university is in Jalukbari in the Guwahati city area. The campus has a hillock on the southern side and the Brahmaputra river flows on the northern side. The campus area has been developed into a small township, now known as 'Gopinath Bardoloi Nagar'. It has about 6000 population including 3700 students residing in the hostels.
Apart from the residential quarters of teachers, officers and employees, there are 22 halls of residence for students. The necessary civic amenities such as health service, water supply, street lighting, internal roads, guest house, post and telegraph office, a branch of the State Bank of India, United Bank Of India, canteens, a market, parks, playgrounds, auditorium, indoor stadium, etc. are on campus.
The university is 10 km from the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport on National Highway No. 37; 5 km from Kamakhya Railway Station; and 10 km from Guwahati Railway Station as well as from the bus stop near the Cachari (D.C. court) at the heart of Guwahati City. The capital complex of Assam at Dispur is 22 km from the university. The university is easily accessible from the Guwahati city; Guwahati has road, rail and air links from all parts of the country. A large number of bus services from parts of Assam have their station at Adabari bus stand which is 2 km from the campus.
To automate their internal processes, Gauhati University has chosen Kalingasoft's flagship Education ERP solution, Greycells. This implementation has resulted in the complete automation of the university's academic, administrative and financial processes.
Library and regional center
![](../I/KK_handique_library%252C_Gauhati_University.jpg.webp)
The North Eastern Regional Centre (NERC) of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is in the Gauhati University Central Library Extension Building. Along with Bangalore ICHR Regional Centre, this is the only regional centre in GU so far.
The university's Krishna Kanta Handique Library is a designated 'Manuscript Conservation Centre' (MCC) under the National Mission for Manuscripts established in 2003.[7]
The library is the largest in Assam, holding about 850,000 books, magazines, and journals in its collection. It also hosts about 5,000 valuable priceless manuscripts, some more than 300 years old.[8]
Residential student halls
Hall of Residence for Women
- Nalinibala Devi RCC1 Girls' Hall
- Indira Miri RCC2 Girls' Hall
- Puspalata Das RCC3 Girls' Hall
- Padmabati Phukanani RCC4 Girls' Hall
- Mamoni Roisom Goswami RCC5 Girls' Hall
- Pratima Barua Pandey RCC6 Girls' Hall
- Kanaklata Barua RCC7 Girls' Hall
- Gandhi Bhawan (Only for research scholar)
- Rani Gaidalu AT2 Girls' Hall (For LLB Students)
- Chandraprabha Saikiani AT3 Girls' Hall
- IST Girls' Hall (For GUIST student)
Hall of Residence for Men
- Madhab Bezbaruah RCC1 Boys' Hall
- Gopinath Bardoloi RCC2 Boys' Hall
- Dr. Banikanta Kakati RCC3 Boys' Hall
- Dr. Bhubaneswar Baruah RCC4 Boys' Hall
- V. Venkata Rao RCC5 Boys' Hall (Only for Research Scholar)
- Lakshminath Bez baruah
- Sahityacharya Atul Chandra Hazarika
- Padmanath Gohain Baruah
- Lachit Barphukan AT7 Boys' Hall
- Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Agarwala AT8 Boys' Hall
- Jnanadabhiram Baruah AT9 Boys' Hall (Only for LLB Students)
Organisation and administration
Governance
![](../I/Administrative_Building%252C_Gauhati_University.jpg.webp)
The G.U. Court, The Executive Council, and The Academic Council are the authorities of the University.[9]
Faculties
![](../I/New_academic_building%252C_Gauhati_university.jpg.webp)
![](../I/Gauhati_university_arts_building.jpg.webp)
The institution is divided into following academic units:
- Faculty of Arts
- Arabic
- Assamese[10]
- Bengali[10]
- Bodo
- Communication and Journalism
- Disabilities Studies
- Economics
- Education
- English
- English Language Teaching (Note: This subject is not recognised by the UGC for National Eligibility Test.)
- Folklore
- Foreign Languages
- Hindi
- History
- Geography
- Library and Information Science
- Linguistics
- Modern Indian Languages (Odia, Tamil, Nepali)[10]
- Persian
- Philosophy
- Political Science
- Philosophy
- Sanskrit
- Sociology
- Women’s Studies
- Faculty of Sciences
- Faculty of Technology
- Biological Science
- Biotechnology
- Biotechnology and Bioengineering
- Chemical Science
- Computer Science
- Electronics and Communication Engineering
- Information Technology
- Instrumentation and USIC
- Mathematical Science
- Physical Science
- Faculty of Commerce
- Faculty of Management
- Business Administration
- Faculty of Law
Colleges
When Gauhati University was established, it had 17 affiliated colleges. Today it has 326 colleges in Assam which are affiliated to Gauhati University. This included Cotton College till it became a University. The affiliation of Cotton College was transferred from Calcutta University to Gauhati University after the later was established in 1948.[11]
Academics
Rankings
University rankings | |
---|---|
General – India | |
NIRF (Overall) (2020)[12] | 72 |
NIRF (Universities) (2020)[13] | 47 |
The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked Gauhati University 72 overall in India[14] and 47 among universities[15] in 2020.
The National Institutional Ranking Framework ranked the Gauhati University as follows:
Year | Universities | Overall |
---|---|---|
2020 | 47th[15] | 72nd[14] |
2019 | 42nd | 65th[16] |
2018 | 39th | 61st[17] |
2017 | 27th | 43rd[18] |
2016 | 22nd[19] | -- |
Notable alumni and faculty
Alumni
- Ambika Charan Choudhury, litterateur
- Jitendra Nath Goswami, Indian scientist, Chief scientist of Chandrayaan-1, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Laureate (1994), Padma Shri (2017)
- Bhabananda Deka, economist
- Mamoni Raisom Goswami, novelist, Sahitya Akademi Award (1983), Jnanpith Award (2001), Principal Prince Claus Laureate (2008)
- Dipak C. Jain, professor, European president at CEIBS
- Hitendra Nath Goswami, current Speaker of Assam Legislative Assembly
- Nagen Saikia, Indian writer, Sahitya Akademi Award (1997)
- Bijoya Chakravarty, politician, Former Union Minister of State, Water Resources
- Elangbam Nilakanta Singh, poet, Sahitya Akademi Award (1987), Padma Shri (2000)
- Ritu Lalit, Indian writer
- Sarbananda Sonowal, politician, current Chief Minister of Assam
- Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, former Chief Minister of Assam
- Mukundakam Sharma, Lawyer, former judge in the Supreme Court of India, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court
- Temsula Ao, novelist, Padma Shri (2007), Sahitya Akademi Award (2013)
- Atul Bora, politician
- Himanta Biswa Sarma, politician
- Dhruba Hazarika, novelist
- Siddhartha Bhattacharya, politician
- Nirmal Prabha Bordoloi, novelist, Sahitya Akademi Award (1983)
- Arupa Kalita Patangia, novelist, Sahitya Akademi Award (2014)
- Bhupendra Nath Goswami, Indian scientist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Laureate (1995)
- Mahim Bora, Indian writer, Sahitya Akademi Award (2001), Padma Shri (2011)
- Tarun Gogoi, former Chief Minister of Assam
- Harishankar Brahma, 19th Chief Election Commissioner of India
- Birendra Nath Datta, Indian researcher, Padma Shri (2009)
- Debapratim Purkayastha, Indian educator
- Kishore Jadav, writer
Faculty
- Debo Prasad Barooah, former Vice-Chancellor
- Surya Kumar Bhuyan, former Vice-Chancellor
- Amarjyoti Choudhury, former lecturer
- Krishna Kanta Handique, founder Vice-Chancellor of Gauhati University, Padma shri(1955), Padma Bhushan(1967)
- Bhupen Hazarika, former lecturer
- Banikanta Kakati, former Dean of Faculty of Arts and Head of the Assamese Department.
- Jyotiprasad Medhi, former Head and Professor of Statistics Department.
- Maheswar Neog, former professor
- N. U. Prabhu, former lecturer
- Bhabendra Nath Saikia, former lecturer
References
- NAAC peer team report
- Annual Quality Assurance Reports (AQARs)
- National Accessment and Accreditation Council
- History of Gauhati University
- "H i s t o r y". Gauhati.ac.in. Archived from the original on 18 May 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
- "A d m i n i s t r a t i o n". Gauhati.ac.in. Archived from the original on 15 February 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
- Manuscript Conservation Centres Archived 6 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine National Mission for Manuscripts.
- "Varsity effort to preserve old manuscripts". The Times Of India. 6 February 2012.
- http://www.gauhati.ac.in/administration.php
- "Gauhati University to offer PG courses in 4 regional languages | Guwahati NYOOOZ". NYOOOZ. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
- "Assam's Cotton College becomes Cotton University". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 2 June 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
- "National Institutional Ranking Framework 2020 (Overall)". National Institutional Ranking Framework. Ministry of Education. 11 June 2020.
- "National Institutional Ranking Framework 2020 (Universities)". National Institutional Ranking Framework. Ministry of Education. 11 June 2020.
- "MHRD, National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF)". www.nirfindia.org. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
- "MHRD, National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF)". www.nirfindia.org. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
- "MHRD, National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF)". www.nirfindia.org. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
- "MHRD, National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF)". www.nirfindia.org. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
- National Institutional Ranking Framework
- National Institutional Ranking Framework