Jawaharlal Nehru University

Jawaharlal Nehru University
Established 1969
Type Public
Chancellor K. Kasturirangan
Vice-Chancellor Sudhir Kumar Sopory
Academic staff
 473 (on 31 January 2011)
Administrative staff
 1276 (on 31 March 2011)
Students 7304 (on 31 March 2010)
Location New Delhi, India
Campus Urban 1000 acres (4 km²)
Affiliations UGC, NAAC, AIU
Website www.jnu.ac.in

Jawaharlal Nehru University', (Hindi: जवाहरलाल नेहरू विश्वविद्यालय) also known as JNU, is a public central university in New Delhi, the capital of India. In 2012, The National Assessment and Accreditation Council gave the university a grade of 3.9 out of 4, the highest grade[1] awarded to any educational institution in the country.[2] The university is ranked second among the public universities in India, as published by India Today.[3]

History

Library building, JNU.
Campus Location in India: New Delhi

JNU was established in 1969 by an act of parliament.[4] It was named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister and was founded by Indira Gandhi, (Nehru's daughter), and G. Parthsarthi was the first vice-chancellor.

The objective of the founders was to make the university a premier institution of higher learning and to promote research and teaching leading to the increasing engagement of its students and teachers in higher level academic work and national and international policy making.

Funding

In 2011-12 the university received over 250 Crores as central subsidy, amounting to over 3,50,000 Rupees per student.

Logo

The JNU Logo is a graphic statement which stands for international academic exchange and onwards search of knowledge for the betterment of human being. The overlapping circular segments of the design denote global interaction, creating a flame emitting enlightenment, this flame emerges from the traditional Indian 'diya' (lamp)-a source of Light, Understanding and Brotherhood. The design is also representative of the rose-bud closely associated with the name of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru.

Schools

Arts Faculty, JNU.
School of Biotechnology building

University is organised into ten schools, each of which has several centres, as well as four independent special centres:

  1. School of Arts and Aesthetics:[5] This is one of the newest schools in the university. It is one of the few places in India that offers post-graduate degree courses in the theoretical and critical study of the cinematic, visual and performing arts. Moreover, it is the only place in India where these disciplines are offered in one integrated programme that allows students to understand the individual arts in a broader context of history, sociology, politics, semiotics, gender and cultural studies apart from being able to integrate the study of one art form with the other arts. The three streams of study offered at the school are Visual Studies, Theatre and Performance Studies and Cinema Studies.
  2. School of Biotechnology: This school was set up in 2006 from the earlier Center for Biotechnology. BioSpectrum magazine rated the Bio Technology program of JNU as third ranking institute among all public schools in India.
  3. School of Computer and Systems Sciences: Since its inception in 1974, this school has been attracting the largest number of applications as compared with the other schools. The school specially caters to three fields of study: Master of Computer Application (MCA), Master of Technology (M.Tech.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). The faculty and students deal with a wide range of computer science and technology areas, for example: Database Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Networks, Operation Research, Mathematical Modelling, Optimization Techniques, Software Engineering and many more. A student placement cell facilitates the students to enter the global IT market after completion of the course.[6]
  4. School of Environmental Sciences: Research into remote sensing application in geosciences, especially groundwater and earthquake forewarning and Sun-Earth connection. Other research includes Environmental Biosciences, Ecology, Geomics, Glaciology, Chemistry, Cell Biology, Immunology, Pollution studies, Radiation Physics and Environmental Physics.
  5. School of International Studies: This is the oldest school. It predates the establishment of JNU as the Indian School of International Studies, which was set up in 1955.[7] The centers in this school are the Center for Canadian, US and Latin American Studies, the Center for East Asian Studies, the Center for European Studies, the Center for International Legal Studies, the Center for International Politics, Organisation and Disarmament Studies, the Center for International Trade and Development, the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies, the Center for South, Central, Southeast Asian and Southwest Pacific Studies, the Center for West Asian Studies, Centre for African Studies and the Group of Comparative Politics & Political Theory.
  6. School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies: This is the only school that offers undergraduate courses with several centers: the Center for Arabic and African Studies, the Center for Chinese and South East Asian Studies, the Center for French and Francophone Studies, the Center for German Studies, the Center of Indian Languages, the Center for Japanese Korean and North East Asian Studies, the Center for English Studies, the Center for Linguistics, the Center for Persian and Central Asian Studies, the Center for Russian Studies, the Center for Spanish, Portuguese, Italian & Latin American Studies.
  7. School of Life Sciences: The School of Life Sciences (SLS) was established on the basis of a report prepared by a working group headed by Prof. M.S. Swaminathan in 1970. The school stands today as a unique institution in the country where multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teaching and research in life sciences have established permanent roots. The uniqueness of the school essentially lies in the fact that in the faculty there are experts and active researchers representing almost all areas of modern biology. The school has been recognized as Center of Excellence under UGC-COSIST and DSA Special Assistance Programmes. Almost all the students completing Ph.D. degrees from SLS (285 till date) get opportunities for post-doctoral work abroad, and a great many return to serve the country. The school’s faculty and students publish extensively in reputed national and international journals: To date, SLS has to its credit over 2000 research publications.
  8. School of Physical Sciences: This school was formed in 1986 with a faculty in Physics and later added with faculties in Chemistry and Mathematics. The degree programs offered are M.Sc. (in Physics) and Ph.D. (in Physics, Chemistry or Mathematics). The areas of research interests include Theoretical and Experimental Condensed Matter Physics, Soft-Matter Physics, Non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics, Quantum Field Theory, Classical and Quantum Chaos, Low Temperature Physics, Materials Science, Supramolecular Chemistry, Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy, as well as extensive computational facilities with a dedicated Nonlinear Dynamics laboratory.
  9. School of Social Sciences: It is the largest school (in terms of the number of faculty members) in JNU with nine centres. Its centers include the Center for the Study of Regional Development, which is accredited as the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) by the University Grants Commission and is the premier center in the field of geography, the Center for Economic Studies and Planning , which is a premier institute in the field of economics, the Center for Historical Studies, which regularly brings out a reputed peer-reviewed journal Studies in History, the Center for Philosophy, the Center for Political Studies, the Center for Studies in Science Policy, the Center for the Study of Social Systems, the Center of Social Medicine and Community Health, the Zakir Husain Center for Educational Studies,[8]
  10. Special centres

Reputation and rankings

Rankings
QS[9]
(2014/15, world) 		150-200
THE[10]
(2014/15, national) 		3

Constituent centres

The following are the constituent institutes under the university:[11]

In addition, the university has exchange programmes and academic collaboration through the signing of MoUs with 71 universities around the world.[13] The University has also sent a proposal to set up a Center in Bihar.[14]

Infrastructure

JNU Campus

The university is an example of the new red brick universities built in the mid-20th century.

JNU campus.

Located in the southern part of New Delhi and spread over an area of about 1000 acres (4 km²), the campus occupies some of the northernmost reaches of the Aravalli Hills. The campus maintains large patches of scrub and forestland – the JNU ridge is home to over 200 species of birds and other wildlife such as, Nilgai, Indian Crested Porcupines, Common Palm Civet, jackals, mongoose, peacocks as well as a large number of snakes.

The JNU library is a nine-storey building in the middle of the academic block of the university and is the tallest structure on the campus. It contains large collections of books, printed journals, newspapers and archives of primary sources. On the ground floor are the reading rooms, a section of the stacks, the library's collection of the back numbers of scholarly journals, computer terminals and a newspaper and journal section. The floors are devoted to different subjects. The library houses the P.C. Joshi Archives. The library compound is fully Wi-Fi, with online access to international academic journals including Project MUSE and JSTOR.

Modernization

The university has been modernising by moving toward "paperless"[15] transparency and e-governance with the help of Wipro and a wireless network to connect the students and the teachers to the library.

Student life

Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU)

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) is primarily responsible for building and preserving a healthy political culture and an atmosphere of open debates on the campus. Students are kept informed about the public meetings, discussions and other issues through pamphlets and notices. Public Action, an objective forum, invited a variety of journalists, politicians, and academics, to debate and discuss various topics. There is a long tradition in JNU of holding serious post-dinner meetings in the hostels to which the students often invite well-known public figures, writers and intellectuals.

Student activism

The university is known to have a long tradition of alumni who now occupy important political and bureaucratic positions (see Prominent alumni). This is in part due to the strong prevalence of Left-Centric student politics and the existence of a written constitution for the university to which noted Communist Party leader Prakash Karat contributed exhaustively during his education at JNU. However, on 24 October 2008 the Supreme Court of India stayed the JNU elections and banned the JNUSU for not complying with the recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee. After a prolonged struggle and multi-party negotiations, the ban was lifted on 8 December 2011. After a gap of more than four years, interim elections were scheduled again on 1 March 2012.[16] Following the election results declared on 3 March 2012, AISA candidates won all four central panel seats and Sucheta De, the president of AISA became the president of JNUSU.[17]

Communism wall painting in Jawaharlal Nehru University, based on Picasso's Guernica mural.

International Student's Association

The International Student's Association (ISA) is an official Jawaharlal Nehru University body. It was instituted in 1985 with a view to promoting friendly relations and cultural exchange. The ISA has a constitution and elected executive, cultural, advisory and financial committees. All foreign students of JNU are also members of the FSA. The university has 133 international students.[18]

ISA had started as the Foreign Students Association (FSA). The word 'foreign' was replaced with 'international' for semantic propriety.

Cultural activities

The university has nine central cultural clubs: the Drama Club, Music Club, Film Club, Fine Arts Club, Photography Club, Literary Club, Debating Club, UNESCO Club, and Nature & Wildlife Club. Programs are organized by the convenor and the members of the respective clubs.

In addition there are a large number of associations of students from different states of India and various other autonomous cultural groups such as Bahroop Arts Group, IPTA (Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association), Wings Cultural Society, JANRANG and many more.

inside JNU Forum

Forums, Groups, Connections, Discussion, Events and more...

Halls of residence

The residential character of JNU is an important component of the intellectual and cultural life of the campus. There are 17 residences (hostels), including one (Mahanadi) for married research scholars and one (Subansir also known as Mahanadi Old) for Post Doctoral Fellows. Of the 17 residences, 7 are for men, 5 are for women and 4 have mixed wings for women and men. They are all named on the rivers of India.

Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Koyna and Shipra (women). Jhelum, Satluj, Periyar, Narmada, Kaveri, Mahi-Mandavi and Brahmaputra(men). Sabarmati, Tapti, Lohit, Chandrabhaga( co-ed, mixed wings). Mahanadi ( married research scholars) and Subansir (also known as Mahanadi Old) for post doctoral fellows.

Sports

There are sports clubs in the university. The practice sessions are organised by the convenor with help of the Sport Office, which provides the necessary kit and other equipment. All the clubs organise annual tournaments in the winter semester. There are three main venues where the following games are played:

Notable alumni

Notable faculty

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.jnu.ac.in/naac.jpg
  2. ↑ http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/article3625872.ece
  3. ↑ "India's top 50 universities – | Photos | India Today |". Indiatoday.intoday.in. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
  4. ↑ "Jawaharlal Nehru University Act 1966" (PDF). Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  5. ↑ http://www.jnu.ac.in/SAA/
  6. ↑ http://www.jnu.ac.in/main.asp?sendval=SchoolOfComputers
  7. ↑ Rajan, M.S. (1 January 1973). "Indian School of International Studies Joins Jawaharlal Nehru University". International Studies 12 (1): 138–140. doi:10.1177/002088177301200105.
  8. ↑ JNU (1997) Silver Jubilee Commemoration Volume; A Profile of School of Social Sciences, New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University
  9. ↑ "QS World University Rankings 2014/15". Quacquarelli Symonds. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  10. ↑ "Top European Universities 2014-15". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  11. ↑ Institutions affiliated to JNU
  12. ↑ National Institute of Plant Genome Research
  13. ↑ Global Presence of JNU http://www.jnu.ac.in/main.asp?sendval=GlobalPresence#
  14. ↑ "After BHU, JNU submits proposal to set up a Campus in Bihar". IANS. news.biharprabha.com. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  15. ↑ "JNU all set to go `paperless'", The Hindu, 28 October 2006 [on-line] http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/25/stories/2006102519390300.htm
  16. ↑ "Polls for JNU students on Feb 23, counting on same day". Indian Express. 4 February 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
  17. ↑ Raza, Danish (3 March 2012). "JNU student union elections: Clean sweep for ultra-left AISA". Firstpost.com. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  18. ↑ "STASTISTICAL DATA OF CENTRAL UNIVERSITIES – JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY". Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  19. ↑ http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/return-of-18000-indians-to-top-ahameds-agenda-in-libya/article4611271.ece
  20. ↑ "List of ministers in Narendra Modi's government". The Economic Times. 27 May 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  21. ↑ "Bharatiya Janata Party - The Party with a Difference". Bjp.org. Retrieved 2013-06-29.

External links

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Coordinates: 28°32′45″N 77°10′13″E / 28.5458°N 77.1703°E