University of Pune
The University of Pune (Marathi: पुणे विद्यापीठ) (formerly the University of Poona), is a university located in northwestern Pune, India. It was founded in 1949. Spread over a 411 acres (1.66 km2) campus[2], the university is home to 46 academic departments. University of Pune has been given the highest "A" rating [3] by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for its overall performance.
History
The University of Pune was established under the Poona University Act, passed by the Bombay legislature on February 10, 1948. In the same year, Dr. M.R. Jayakar assumed office as the first vice chancellor of the university. Shri B.G. Kher, Chief Minister and Education Minister of the government of Bombay, helped ensure the university received a large allocation of land for their campus. In early 1950, the university was allocated over 411 acres (1.7 km²).
The location of the University has historical significance. Some incidents of the Battle of Khadki took place where the present day University of Pune is located. The present day Main Building was built in 1864 and was known as the Governor's House. The University is also home to IUCAA, the nation's premier institute for astronomy.
Jurisdiction
Initially the university had a jurisdiction extending over 12 districts of western Maharashtra. However, with the establishment of Shivaji University in Kolhapur in 1964, the jurisdiction of the university was restricted to 5 districts, namely Pune, Ahmednagar, Nashik, Dhule and Jalgaon. Out of these, two districts—Dhule and Jalgaon—are attached to the North Maharashtra University established in August 1990.
Affiliations
In 1949, there were only 18 colleges affiliated to the university (including famed colleges such as the Film and Television Institute of India, S. P. College, Wadia College, Garware College, Fergusson College, College of Engineering, Pune) with an enrollment of over 8000 students. Thereafter, the number of colleges increased, and in 2010, the university had 41 graduate departments, 433 affiliated colleges and 232 recognized research institutions, with an enrollment of 496,531 students for both the undergraduate and graduate courses in different faculties. D Y Patil College of Engineering is also affiliated to the University and has the largest intake of 630 seats for the bachelors degree in engineering.[4] [5]
Vidyavani is a community radio operated by the University [6] programs are focused on various departments on the Pune University, various students’ welfare schemes of the University, information about exams and results and activities of the University. Various edutainment programmes which cater to problems of youths are also broadcasted.[7]
Research
70 research institutions have been recognized by the University of Pune for research. These include institutions of national importance like the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), National Centre For Cell Science (NCCS), National Institute of Virology (NIV), Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), Documentation Research and Training Centre(DRTC) of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) among others.
Other research organisations which associated with the University of Pune are:
Departments
- Department of Zoology: The Department of Zoology is one of the first departments to be established by the University of Pune in 1950. Situated on an exceptionally beautiful and picturesque campus of the University of Pune, the Department of Zoology offers up-to-date and pertinent post-graduation programme (M.Sc., M. Phil and Ph.D.) in Zoology with emphasis on fundamentals as well as emerging areas of modern biology. During the last 60 years, the department has made its identity in the frontier areas of Life Sciences and now it has developed into a full- fledged centre of teaching and research in modern biology. The effort of the department in establishing unique and innovative teaching and training programmes led to its recognition as Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) in by the University Grants Commission (UGC) since 2005. Department of Zoology has received funds from the UGC under Committee on Strengthening of Infrastructure for Science and Technology (COSIST). The department has also received funds from DST-Government of India under the FIST programme. Way back in 1985 the Department of Zoology was given the University Leadership programme. In the same year, the first national programme of M.Sc. in Biotechnology supported by the Department of Biotechnology (then NTBT), Government of India was initiated in Department of Zoology. In the following years, several research establishments like Bioinformatics Centre, National Centre for Cell Sciences (NCCS), Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology (IBB), which are now independent institutions, were housed in the department and their research activities were initiated. Since 2000, department has offered the Credit System for M.Sc. in Zoology course; with emphasis on hands-on practical training of the students and continuous internal assessment. Being an autonomous department of the University, the Department of Zoology also has flexibility in framing courses and conducting tests and examinations. The faculty members of the department have been actively engaged in research and have received research grants from various funding agencies such as UGC, CSIR, DRDO, ISRO, DBT, DST, DAE and ICMR, in addition to industry sponsored projects.
- Department Of Communication Studies - University of Pune, established Department of Communication Studies in July 1990. It was one of the first universities in India to recognize that academic training in Communication means much more than mass communication in general and journalism in particular. The Department was therefore, named as ‘Department of Communication Studies’. The name and the course are thus in tune with the trend in the academics as well as in the industry. Department has been running a two years full time Masters Course in Communication Studies (M.Cm.S.) since its inception. While expanding the scope of academic training beyond journalism, Department has identified Video Production and Media Research as its strength areas. Over the years, the course has also incorporated emerging areas in the fields of mass communication, interpersonal and organizational communication while keeping our strength areas in focus.
- Department of Geography (DOG) - First established in the University of Pune in 1950. Every year the department admits students for it M.A/MSc., M.Phil and Ph.D courses. The Department also offers students from interdisciplinary backgrounds, a course in Remote Sensing and Geospatial Information Systems (GIS and RS).
- Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology (IBB) - An autonomous institute with an affiliation to the University of Pune. It was established with a view to promote research and development activities in bioinformatics and biotechnology, with a focus on creation of high quality research environment and human resources. IBB is situated on the campus of University of Pune, India.
- Department of Chemistry (DOC) - One of the earliest departments established by the University of Pune. It is rated as one of the best in the country for its teaching and research activities.It has received the "CAS" status (Centre for Advanced Studies in Chemistry). The research programs of the Department cover a number of areas like computational chemistry, organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry and biochemistry. The department has a close collaboration with the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), a premier research institute in India. Similar to physics department on the campus, it is currently undergoing a phase where many of its celebrated faculty like Professor Shridhar R. Gadre, Professor B. S. M. Rao and Professor Subhash Padhye have retired without any worthy replacements. The department has its separate central computing facility: a computer laboratory for students.
- Department of Microbiology (DOM) - An autonomous department of University and offers courses credit based course in Microbiology which covers topics in Immunology, Medical Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Industrial Microbiology and Biochemistry.
- Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA) - A business school run by the university.
- Department of Biotechnology - In 1985, National Board of Biotechnology selected University of Pune as one of its five centres for imparting training in M.Sc. Biotechnology.
- Department of Environmental Science - First established as an interdisciplinary school of the University of Pune in1978. As a first step, Environmental Science was introduced as an optional course in all the science departments. In view of its popularity, a one-year course, B.Sc. (Applied) was started in 1986, which was subsequently converted into a two-year full time M. Sc. course.
- Computer Science Department (PUCSD) - One of the earliest CS Departments started in Indian Universities. Back in 1980, when computer science was little known and the word IT didn't exist, a one-year programme was started towards the B.Sc.(Applied) degree in Computer Science. The M.C.A. programme was launched in 1983, the M.Tech. degree programme in 1985, and the one year B.Sc.(Applied) programme was upgraded to a two year M.Sc. in Computer Science in 1986.
- Department of Physics (DoP) - Located on the scenic campus of the University of Pune, the Department of Physics started its activity in 1952 and there is no looking back since then. The department today is an active beehive of research being carried out in a wide variety of frontier areas as well as high quality post-graduate and doctoral programs. The research programs of the Department cover a number of areas like Materials Science, Solid State Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, Cloud Physics, Thin/Thick Films, Diamond Coatings, Nuclear and Accelerator Physics, Lasers, Plasma Physics, Field Electron/Ion Microscopy, Biophysics etc. The department has flexibility in framing courses and conducting tests and examinations. It has been recognized that teaching in this department was among the best in the country. The department has received funds from DST- government of India under the FIST program. A large number of faculty members and students get benefit from this program. Currently it is undergoing a phase where many of its celebrated faculty like Prof.Anil Gangal and Prof. D. G. Kanhere have retired without any worthy replacements. It conducts a Ph.D. test that is of a good standard.
- Atmospheric and Space Sciences
- Department of Electronic Science
- Department of Instrumentation Science (USIC): A spin-off from the University workshop, the department was initially conceived as an extension of the physics department to build and maintain instruments used by the Physics department, and essentially served as a prototyping laboratory for building and testing new instruments. In due course of time, the department started running an M.Sc. program for Applied Electronics. This represented one of the pioneering attempts in India to run a University department autonomously, funded in large part by student fees and research projects undertaken by the department. To provide a broader focus, the M.Sc. Applied Electronics course gradually metamorphosed into the M.Sc Instrumentation Science Course with additional focus on sensors and transducers, as well as product design. In addition to the M.Sc course, the department also features a sensor lab which continues to collaborate with the Physics and Electronics departments providing PhD candidates an inter-disciplinary environment to pursue independent research work.
- Centre for Modeling and Simulation (CMS) - An autonomous department run by university.
- Interdisciplinary school of scientific computing (ISSC)
- Department of Communication and Journalism (DoCJ)
- Department of Statistics - The department of Mathematics and Statistics was established in 1953. The department was initially situated in the main building of the University. Prof. V. S. Huzurbazar was the first head of the department. In 1962 the department was shifted to its new elegant building later named as `Wrangler Paranjapye Ganit ani Sankhyashastra Bhavan'. The department of Statistics was separated in 1976. Now the department is recognized as the `Centre for Advanced Studies in Statistics'.
- Department of Politics and Public Administration
Notable alumni
- Vishwanath Pratap Singh, 7th Prime Minister of India and 41st Raja of Manda
- Vilasrao Deshmukh, 17 & 19th Chief Minister of Maharashtra
- C. Kumar N. Patel, vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Los Angeles
- Padmanabhan Balaram, director of the Indian Institute of Science
- Vijay Kelkar, economist and academic
- Suhas Patankar, a pioneer in the field of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and Finite volume method
- Shankar Sarda, Journalist
- Shereen Bhan, Eminent Journalist
- Kantilal Mardia, statistician
- C. Kumar N. Patel - Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Los Angeles
- Thomas Kailath, scientist in the area of information theory
- Venugopal Dhoot, Chairman of Videocon
Department of Education and Extension
See also
References
External links
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