Panjab University - PU

About Panjab University - PU

Panjab University is one of the leading institutes in education which has a long tradition of pursuing excellence in teaching and research in science and technology, humanities, social sciences, performing arts and sports. It supports excellence and innovation in academic programmes. It promotes excellence in research, scholarship and teaching. It is committed to attracting and supporting the best students and recruiting faculty who excel at teaching and research. For more than a century, it has served various societal needs with distinction. The glorious traditions of the University, established during the period of more than 125 years of its long service to the nation and since its inception in 1882 at Lahore (now in Pakistan), are a source of inspiration for the present generation of faculty members and students. By virtue of its age, experience, achievements and philosophy, the Panjab University is a University of national character and stature, in so far as it has drawn both its faculty and students from all over the country and abroad. Its faculty includes some of the most distinguished scientists and academicians in arts and humanities. The University continues to attract celebrated scholars from abroad to visit and interact with the faculty and students. Over the years the reputation of Panjab University has grown into one of innovative teaching research and community outreach.

After the partition in 1947, the University was constrained to function for almost a decade without having a campus of its own. The administrative office was located at Solan and the teaching departments functioned from Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Delhi and Amritsar. It was in 1956 that the University was relocated at Chandigarh. Its red sandstone campus, designed by renowned French architects, came up within a few years. The University campus was designed by Pierre Jeanerette under the general guidance of the legendary Le Corbusier. Till the re-organisation of Punjab in 1966, the University had its regional centers at Rohtak, Shimla, Jalandhar and its affiliated colleges were located in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and U.T. of Chandigarh.

Present Infrastructure
The University became an Inter-State Body Corporate after the re-organisation of Punjab. With this it started catering to the newly organised states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Chandigarh. Gradually, the colleges of Himachal and Haryana were affiliated to the universities in the respective states and the Panjab University was left with the affiliated colleges in U.T. of Chandigarh and some parts of Punjab. Presently, the U.T. administration of Chandigarh and the State Govt. of Punjab share the maintenance deficit of the University in the ratio of 60:40, respectively.

The annual budget estimates of the University amount to Rs. 187.81 crores for 2008-2009.

Panjab University, with its 51 teaching and research departments besides 10 Centers/Chairs for the teaching and research on the main campus located at Chandigarh, has more than 173 affiliated colleges spread over Punjab and Chandigarh, Regional Centres at Muktsar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur and Vishweshavaranand Vishva Bandhu Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies (VVBIS&IS) at Hoshiarpur.

Campus and Departments
The main campus at Chandigarh is spread over 550 acres in sectors 14 and 25, the Sector 14 having the main academic and administrative buildings, besides a health centre, a sports complex, hostels and residential area.

The Central A C Joshi Library of Panjab University has a holding of over 6.9 lac volumes which includes 1.25 lac periodicals some of which are rare collections from the 19th century. The University Library has been recognized as one of the six national centres for data-information-distribution in the UGC’s INFLIBNET programme. The library works to provide services which most effectively meet the needs of faculty, students and staff of the University community. Our book and journal collection is augmented by a variety of online sources. Our librarians provide specialized help beyond the general help provided at the Reference and Information Desks.

The Indian Council of Social Science Research has set-up it’s North-Western Regional Centre on the Panjab University Campus. The Centre runs a library, a seminar complex and a guesthouse for visiting scholars under its study-grants programme.

The Gandhi Bhawan on the university campus attracts scholars as well as tourists from all over the world for its magnificent architectural structure, its library and auditorium.

The Panjab University has four museums and the Department of Indian Theatre has its own theatre lab, which is unique in the country. The university has a Botanical Garden and a Garden of Medicinal Plants on the campus.

The office of the Panjab University Students’ Council is located in the Student Centre. The Student Centre is the hub of students’ activities—academic, cultural, social and political. The Students’ Council consists of the departmental representatives and other office bearers i.e. President, Vice-President, Secretary and Joint-Secretary directly elected by the students from the various teaching departments on the campus. The Dean Student Welfare is ex-officio Chairman of the Council. The Students’ Council organises youth festival, both national and international, academic debates, literary and cultural events and educational tours.
SAP: Anthropology, Botany, University Business School, Education, Geography, Geology, Political Science (Geo-Politics), University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Philosophy, Statistics, Sociology and Zoology.

COSIST: Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Physics, Zoology.
CAS: Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physics and University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
FIST: Botany, Chemistry, Mathematics, Microbiology, University Centre of Instrumentation & Microelectronics, Chemical Engineering and Technology, Statistics, Physics, Geology and Biophysics, Biochemistry and Biotechnology.

Information Bureau: The University Employment Information & Guidance Bureau provides employment information and advice to University alumni. There is also a unit of Information and Advisory Bureau that guides students in regard to their studies abroad.

Halls of Residence: The Panjab University offers 7 hostels for about 2,000 men students and five women’s hostels accommodating about 1500 students.

Health Services: The University has on the campus a health centre. It has six full-time Medical Officers comprising of General Practitioners, a medical specialist, a surgeon, dentist and an Ayurvedic Physician. Besides these, there are four part-time specialists in the areas of Gynecology, Pediatrics’, Ophthalmology and Radiology & three part-time General Practitioners.

Sports: The University has playgrounds, a gymnasium and a swimming pool of high standard for its sports activities. Recently, the University has been awarded Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) trophy for the year 2004-05.

Other Facilities
The University has been recognized by the UGC as the “University with Potential for Excellence in Bio-Medical Sciences” with facilities for Stem Cell Research and Drug Development.

Earlier, the University was identified as one of the six centres in the country for super-computing facilities to serve the entire north-western region in Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), DST. The Government of India has also identified the University as a Special Centre. The University takes pride in having been able to provide an Internet connection for more than 1800 terminals for the use of faculty members and students. All the buildings of the University including hostels are connected through ATM and Gigabit technology. The university has the distinction of extending Wi-fi facilities to students in their hostels.

The university has extensively used its website www.puchd.ac.in in providing information to students and the general public. The University also has a DST supported Regional Sophisticated Instrumentation Centre along with Central Instrumentation Laboratory (CIL) and University Science Instrumentation Centre (USIC) to serve the scientific community on the campus and in the region. The Centre for Industry Institute Partnership Programme (CIIPP) has been active in promoting formal and effective academic-industry interface.

The University has a coaching centre for training for IAS examination and allied services as well as other competitive examinations. The University has developed its own local area network in the campus. Having been identified by the DST as one of the six centres in the country, the University has set up super-computing facilities to meet the needs of the laboratories and industry in north-west India.

The Energy Research Centre was established in 1983 at Panjab University to promote R&D and Extension activities in the emerging field of Renewable Energy. It has emerged as a major focal point of R&D and extension on energy and environment at national and international level. Pioneering work in the area of solar thermal energy Storage, Solar Detoxification, Biomethanation of agricultural/industrial/forest wastes, Biomass combustion and gasification, Indoor Air Quality, Energy and Environmental Conservation and Management and Hydrodynamics of Polymeric Solutions is being carried out at the Centre. The Energy Research Centre has professional contacts with a number of reputed International Institutes such as University of Florida, USA, University of Cincinnati, USA, SRI International USA, and Lakehead University Canada etc. A number of students from developing and developed countries have undergone training in the area of energy and environment at the Centre. The faculty of the centre has won a number of International Fellowships and the national awards for their pioneering work. The Centre has also helped the states of Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, U.T. Chandigarh, J&K State, and the North Eastern states in solving problems associated with energy planning & management and Environmental protection.

The University was also chosen for participating in the project, International Collaboration for Research for elementary particles and the large Hadron Collider (LHC) CERN, Geneva CMS Experiment with a Government of India grant of Rs. 2.49 Crores. A large number of faculty members were sanctioned by Major Research Projects by the UGC and other agencies.

Extra Curricular Activities
The university takes all necessary steps to achieve a close working relationship with other universities in order to cooperate on exchange programmes.

The University has an International Exchange Programme with Sweden under the auspices of European Law Students’ Association (ELSA), an Exchange

Programme with the British Council in the field of Public Administration. The University also has International Exchange Programme with the universities of Manitoba and Kyrgyzstan as well as Simon Fraser University, Canada. The university has the office of the Dean of Foreign Students which looks after the academic affairs of overseas students from over 15 countries. The Dean’s office is in constant touch with educational organizations around the world to identify suitable students for various courses taught at the University. Working directly with the Regional Director of ICCR, the Dean helps to facilitate the admission of foreign students.

Cross-cultural experience provides opportunities to lay the groundwork for regional cooperation.

Recent Updates and Projects

The University received a substantial donation of Rs. 1.75 crores for the construction of Aruna Ranjit Chandra Hall from Dr R Chandra, an alumnus of the University.

The university has started Dr H S Judge Institute of Dental Studies at its south campus in Sector 25. A 100-bed hospital as a part of the Institute for medical research is being built in sector 25. Dr Harvansh Singh Judge and Mr Pawan Bansal, MP (Lok Sabha) provided grants worth crores of rupees. The first batch of BDS students was admitted in the session of 2006-07.

The University has been doing its best to restructure its existing courses, start new courses, undertake research projects and initiate new policies to meet the new challenges emerging from rapidly changing technological, socio-economic and education environment. The University hopes to generate an academically vibrant environment through inter-disciplinary lectures/seminars which will go a long way in giving an impetus to major structural changes in the courses taught at the University as well as promoting an active participation in the cultural pattern of our society. The University has introduced many new courses in emerging areas and vocational studies during the last few years. These include courses such as M.Tech. in Microelectronics, Nano Technology and Nano Science, Master’s in Business Economics, Master’s in E-Commerce, Honours School in Computer Science on the Campus and B.B.A. and B.C.A. in the affiliated colleges. The UGC has given a grant of Rs. 1 crore to start academic programmes and research activities in Genomic Studies and M.Sc. (Human Genomics) has been started from the academic year 2002.

The University has set up the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) from the academic session 2002-2003, University Institute of Legal Studies from 2004-05, Swami Sarvanand Giri PU regional Centre at Hoshiarpur for Engineering courses from the session 2006-07.

The University has recently set up Centre for Emerging Areas in Science and Technology and has started from the academic session 2007-2008, M.Sc. in System Biology & Bio-informatics, Medical Physics, Nuclear Medicine, M.Tech. in Nano Science and Nanotechnology, M.A. in Public Health and MBA in Biotechnology.

In keeping with the societal needs, the University has also set up Centre for Emerging Areas in Social Sciences, which has introduced Masters’ level courses in Police Administration, Social Work and Human Rights & Duties.

Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy has been set-up with the support of UGC where the focus of research and teaching would be on inclusive growth.

To offer management programmes in sectoral areas and streams so as to fulfil industry needs and requirements for specialized managerial skills, in the year 2008-09 the university has stated University Institute of Applied Management Sciences (UIAMS). The institute is offering MBA programmes in sectoral areas.