Gauhati University

Gauhati University also known as GU, is a collegiate public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established on 26 January 1948 under the provisions of an Act enacted by the Assam Legislative Assembly and is the oldest university in Northeast India.

It is accredited grade "A+" by National Assessment and Accreditation Council. 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, Medicine, Engineering and Technology. Gauhati University is a member of the Association of Indian Universities and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Vice-Chancellors

 * Krishna Kanta Handique 1947 – 1957
 * Surya Kumar Bhuyan 1957 – 1960
 * H. C. Bhuyan 1960 – 1962
 * Phanidhar Dutta 1962 – 1962
 * Harold John Taylor 1962 – 1965
 * M. N. Goswami 1965 – 1971
 * S. C. Rajkhowa 1971 – 1974
 * H. K. Barua 1974 – 1979
 * J. M. Choudhury 1979 – 1986
 * D. P. Barooah 1986 – 1991
 * N. K. Choudhury 1991 – 1996
 * Hiralal Duarah 1996 – 2001
 * G. N. Talukdar 2001 – 2006
 * Amarjyoti Choudhury 2006 – 2008
 * Okhil Kumar Medhi 2008 – 2013
 * Mridul Hazarika 2013 – 2019
 * Pratap Jyoti Handique 2019 – present

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. 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.

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 Tripureswar Mukhopadhyay, a textile designer of Ahmedabad. Two Sanskrit words inscribed on it – Vidyaya Sadhayeta (meaning achievement through learning) – indicate the motto of the university. It had 17 affiliated colleges and eight Post Graduate Departments on its establishment. The university which started functioning from the city center was shifted to the present campus in 1955–56.

Campus


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
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.

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.

Governance
The G.U. Court, the Executive Council and the Academic Council are the authorities of the university.

In 2019, Professor Pratap Jyoti Handique was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of the university.

Academic faculties
The institution is divided into following academic units:


 * Faculty of Arts
 * Arabic
 * Assamese
 * Bengali
 * Bodo
 * Communication and Journalism
 * Disabilities Studies
 * Economics
 * Education
 * English
 * English Language Teaching
 * Folklore
 * Foreign Languages
 * Hindi
 * History
 * Geography
 * Library and Information Science
 * Linguistics
 * Modern Indian Languages (Odia, Tamil, Nepali)
 * Persian
 * Philosophy
 * Political Science
 * Philosophy
 * Sanskrit
 * Sociology
 * Women’s Studies
 * Faculty of Sciences
 * Anthropology
 * Botany
 * Chemistry
 * Environmental Science
 * Geography
 * Geological Sciences
 * Mathematics
 * Physics
 * Statistics
 * Zoology
 * Faculty of Technology
 * Biological Science
 * Biotechnology
 * Biotechnology and Bioengineering
 * Chemical Science
 * Computer Science
 * Electronics and Communication Engineering
 * Electronics and Communication Technology
 * Information Technology
 * Instrumentation and USIC
 * Mathematical Science
 * Physical Science
 * Faculty of Commerce
 * Commerce
 * Faculty of Management
 * Business Administration
 * Faculty of Law
 * Law

Post Graduate Students' Union
The Post Graduate Students' Union is the apex student representative body of Gauhati University. The first body of PGSU was formed in the year 1949. The first General Secretary was Biren Goswami. Gauhati University being the epicenter of student politics, the PGSU gets high recognition in the state. There are many General Secretaries as well as other office bearers of PGSU who have been involved in the active politics. The present General Secretary of PGSU is Parshwa Patgiri.

Colleges
Its jurisdiction extends over 15 districts - Bajali district, Barpeta, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Darrang, Dhubri, Goalpara, Hojai, Kamrup Metropolitan, Kamrup district, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sonitpur, South Salmara district.

Rankings
Internationally, the QS World University Rankings ranked Gauhati University in the 601–650 band in Asia in 2023.

In India, the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked Gauhati University 64 overall in 2022 and 36 among universities.

Notable alumni

 * Bhaktisvarupa Damodar Swami, Spiritual leader
 * Darwin Diengdoh Pugh, 2nd Chief Minister of Meghalaya
 * Moirangthem Kirti Singh, Indian writer, Padma Shri (1992)
 * Syed Abdul Malik, Indian writer, Padma Shri (1984), Padma Bhushan (1992)
 * Lal Thanhawla, 3rd and the longest serving Chief Minister of Mizoram
 * Prashant Goswami, Indian scientist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Laureate (2001)
 * Ambika Charan Choudhury, litterateur
 * Pranab Kumar Gogoi, politician
 * Binoy Kumar Saikia, Indian scientist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Laureate (2021)
 * Jitendra Nath Goswami, Indian scientist, chief scientist of Chandrayaan-1, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Laureate (1994), Padma Shri (2017)
 * Bhabananda Deka, economist
 * Zubeen Garg, Singer, Composer, Filmmaker, Director and Actor.
 * Purnima Devi Barman, Wildlife Biologist, Nari Shakti Puraskar (2017), Whitley Awards (2017)
 * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah, Actress and Singer.
 * 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, former 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 union minister, former 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, current Chief Minister of Assam
 * Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, lawyer and entrepreneur.
 * Ramkrishna Ghosh, politician
 * Ardhendu Kumar Dey, 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 and the longest serving Chief minister of Assam, Padma Bhushan (2021)
 * Amrita Gogoi, Indian actress.
 * Harishankar Brahma, 19th Chief Election Commissioner of India
 * Birendra Nath Datta, Indian researcher, Padma Shri (2009)
 * Debapratim Purkayastha, Indian educator
 * Kishore Jadav, writer

Notable faculty

 * Debo Prasad Barooah, former vice-chancellor
 * Okhil Kumar Medhi, 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
 * Hiren Gohain, former professor
 * Nirmalprabha Bordoloi, former professor