Panjab University is one of the oldest universities in India

Panjab Chandigarh University

Panjab University, Chandigarh
Seal of Panjab University, Chandigarh
Motto	Sanskrit: तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय
Motto in English	Lead us unto the Light from Darkness
Established	1882, relocated to Chandigarh in 1956
Type	Public
Chancellor	Mohammad Hamid Ansari, The Vice-President of India
Vice-Chancellor	R. C. Sobti
Location	Chandigarh, Chandigarh, India
Campus	Urban
Nickname	PU
Affiliations	UGC
Website	www.puchd.ac.in

Panjab University is one of the oldest universities in India. The university campus is residential, spread over an area of 550 acres (2.2 km²) in sectors 14 and 25 of the city of Chandigarh. The main administrative and academic buildings are located in sector 14, beside a health centre, a sports complex, hostels and residential housing. The university has 58 teaching and research departments and 10 centres/chairs for teaching and research at the main campus located at Chandigarh. It has 172 affiliated colleges spread over Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, Regional Centres at Muktsar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, and Swami Sarvanand Giri Panjab University Regional Centre, Hoshiarpur.

History

Punjab University teaches and researches in science, engineering and technology, humanities, social sciences, performing arts and sports. It was established in 1882 at Lahore (now in Pakistani Punjab).

Post 1947 relocation

After partition in 1947 , the university had no campus of its own for nearly a decade. The administrative office was located at Solan, Himachal Pradesh and the teaching departments functioned from Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Delhi and Amritsar. In 1956 the university was relocated at Chandigarh, on a red sandstone campus designed by Pierre Jeanneret under the guidance of the legendary Le Corbusier. Till the re-organisation of Punjab in 1966, the university had its regional centres at Rohtak, Shimla, Jalandhar and its affiliated colleges were located in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and U.T. of Chandigarh. With the re-organisation of Punjab, the university became an Inter-State Body Corporate catering to the newly organised states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and U.T. of Chandigarh.

Centre

National Centre for Human Genome Studies and Research

NCHGSR was established in 2002 under the sponsorship of UGC to promote molecular biology. The Centre teaches biotechnology, genomics, proteomics, and offers postgraduate and PhD research programs. The centre has an M.Sc program which selects the best students from the merit list prepared by other common entrance test (OCET) entrances conducted in the university.

Department of Computer Science & Applications

The computer culture at the Panjab University dates back to 1966. An independent Centre for Computer Science and Applications (now a full fledged department) was set up in 1983. The department aims at ingraining the spirit of ingenuity, innovativeness and technical competence in the students through rigorous competition and regular guidance. The department also caters to the need of users in the region and organizes training programmes for teaching and research communities.

The Department is running Master of Computer Applications (MCA) (three-year full-time course) and was initiated in 1992–93. Two new courses of (i) Bachelors of Science (Honours School) in Computer Science (ii) Masters of Science (Honours School) in Computer Science have been introduced from 2001 and 2004, respectively. Admissions are held through an annual entrance test conducted by the Panjab University. Ph.D. program has been started from 2005.

The students at the department have the opportunity of working in various development environments like MS-DOS, LINUX, MS Windows (9x/XP/NT/2000), Sun Solaris and HP-Unix. The students also have the opportunity to work on Internet development tools among other visual and Non-Visual ones.

Panjab University has been identified as a Level-III National High Performance Computing Centre under the ICOSER project of TIFAC, Department of Science and Technology. It is among the seven such centres being set up around the country and is the only one in northern India. The Department of Computer Science and Applications is hosting facilities like Web server, E-mail server, Domain Name Servers and proxy servers for Panjab University. Wide area network connectivity of 24 Mb/s is also provided on fiber optic link through ERNET India and Reliance Communications.

The department has its own library with over 2000 books for exclusive use of the students and the faculty. The library has separate magazine and journal sections. Various computer journals are available online through the university library.

Library

The Central A.C. Joshi Library has 650,000 books and 150,000 periodicals, some of which are rare collections from the 19th century. The university library has been recognised as one of the six national centres for data-information-distribution in the UGC's INFLIBNET program. It has a reading hall which is open 24 hours. Book and journal collections are augmented by online sources.

ICSSR

The Indian Council of Social Science Research has set-up its North-Western Regional Centre on the campus. The centre runs a library, a seminar complex and a guest house for visiting scholars under its study-grants programme.

Faculty of Law

The university has two departments for teaching law. Both departments have separate academic blocks .

• Department of Laws: Located in laws department building, it offers two courses:
• Degree of LL.B, a three year course, the eligibility for admission is graduation degree in any stream, with a minimum 45% marks.
• Degree in LL.M, a two year course, which is offered after completion of LL.B.

The department conducts a separate admission test, for both the courses, on the pattern of Union Public Service Commission.

The University Institute of Legal Studies was established as a separate department in 2004. The institute offers B.A. LL.B (Hons.) five years integrated course. The institute has one hundred and eighty seats.

University Business School

The University Business School (formerly, Department of Commerce and Business Management) imparts management education to develop managers, researchers and teachers. The Department of Commerce and Business Management was renamed University Business School (UBS) in 1995.

Courses are:

• MBA
• MBA (International Business)
• MBA (Human Resource)
• MBA (Biotechnology)
• MBA (Executive)
• M.Com. (E. Commerce)
• Ph.D.

University Institute of Hotel Management and Tourism (UIHMT)

An institute of the Panjab University, offers education, training, research and consultancy in the field of hospitality, tourism, travel and allied sectors. This institute was established in the year 2009 under the faculty of Business Management and Commerce.

courses are:

• B.Sc. (Tourism Management)
• B.Sc. (Hospitality and Hotel Administration)

Landmarks at Panjab University

Gandhi Bhawan.

Fine Arts museum, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Gandhi Bhawan

The Gandhi Bhawan is a major landmark of the city of Chandigarh. Designed by the architect Jeanneret, a cousin of Le Corbusier it is an auditorium hall that sits in the middle of a pond of water. A mural by the architect greets visitors at the entry. The words "Truth is God" are written at the entrance. Today it also houses a substantial collection of books on Gandhi.

The Student Center

The Student Center, a major landmark of the city of Chandigarh was inaugurated in 1975. During those turbulent times in the history of India even the inauguration of this building for the use of students became a battle ground for those students who were opposing the government of those times. It houses the office of the university students'council. Following the Punjabi spirit of eat and make merry there is a cafeteria with a scenic panoramic view on the top floor of the Center and a large number of eateries that are frequented by students as well as tourists visiting Chandigarh.

Museums

The Panjab University has four museums, and the Department of Indian theatre has its own theatre lab. The university has a botanical garden and a garden of medicinal plants on the campus.

The Museum of Fine Arts

The museum of Fine Arts houses the early works of almost all of the major artists of modern India. This marvellous collection was created through the initiative of the art historian B.N.Goswamy. Originally the building was supposed to house the rich collection of archaeological artefacts that had been discovered by the department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology. Today the museum of AIHC&A is housed in a modern annexe adjacent to the Fine Arts Museum.

Faculty of Engineering and Technology

University Institute for Chemical Engineering and Technology

The Panjab University had one of the earliest schools teaching engineering in India. The department of Chemical Engineering and Technology, as it was called in the early days, came out of a demand to make the sciences of direct use to society. The department was disrupted during the partition of India when most of the faculty and students chose to come to India. For a few years it was housed in Delhi. Then in 1958, it shifted to its present premises in Chandigarh. Helping the department regain its feet was a collaboration with Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Professor R. E. Peck from IIT Chicago joined as the first Head. Over the years the department grew in stature and evolved into the University Institute for Chemical Engineering and Technology. In 1983, In 1983, an Energy Research Institute was added within the UICET building to promote R&D in the field of renewable energy.

2008, was the Golden Jubilee year of the Institute. As part of the celebrations, the institute hosted CHEMCON-2008, the 61st annual session of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, which also included a joint US-India Conference on Energy.

University Institute of Engineering and Technology

Main article: University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Panjab University

University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) is an on campus engineering institute. It offers undergraduate (BE), postgraduate (dual degree BE+MBA, M.Tech degree) as well as doctoral courses. UIET is one of the top engineering colleges in India. It has been ranked 31st All-India by Outlook MDRA Survey 2011.

Student Council

Student Centre, Panjab University

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 – besides being a favourite eating and hanging out zone for students. 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 Dean Student Welfare is ex-officio Chairman of the Council.

The Students' Council organises youth festivals, both national and international, academic debates, literary and cultural events and educational tours, besides looking after the interests of the students in general.

Departments and courses

• Arts
  • Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archeology
  • Indian Theater
  • Economics
  • Gandhian Studies
  • Geography
  • Guru Nanak Sikh Studies
  • History
  • Library and Information Science
  • School of Communication Studies
  • Philosophy
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Public Administration
  • Sociology
  • Statistics
  • Population Res. Centre
  • Business and Management Commerce
  • University Business School
  • University Institute of Applied Management Sciences
  • University Institute of Hotel Management and Tourism
  • Dairying, Animal Husbandry and Agriculture
  • Design and Fine Arts
  • Fine Arts
  • Music
• Education
  • Education
  • Physical Education
• Engineering and Technology
  • Chandigarh College of Engineering & Technology (CCET)
  • University Institute for Chemical Engineering and Technology (UICET)
  • University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET)
  • RSIC/SAIF/USIC/UCIM/CIL
• Swami Sarvanand Giri Panjab University Regional Centre, Hoshiarpur
• Languages
  • Chinese and Tibetan Languages
  • Dayanand Chair for Vedic Studies
  • Guru Ravidas Chair for Sant Sahitya Studies
  • English
  • Hindi
  • German
  • French
  • Russian
  • Punjabi Studies
  • Urdu
  • Sanskrit
• Law
  • University Institute of Legal Studies
  • Department of Laws
• Centre for Advanced Studies-University Institute of Pharmaceutical Science
  • Medical Science
• Science
  • University institute of fashion technology (UIFT)
  • Anthropology
  • Biochemistry
  • Biophysics
  • Biotechnology
  • Botany
  • Centre for Environment and Vocational Studies
  • Chemistry
  • Computer Science and Applications
  • Geology
  • National Centre for Human Genome Studies and Research
  • Mathematics
  • Microbiology
  • Physics
  • Statistics
  • Zoology
• Evening Studies
• University School of Open Learning (formerly Dept. of Correspondence Studies)
• Other departments
  • Regional Centre

Research facilities

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

The university is one of six centres in the country for super-computing facilities to serve the north-western region in Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), DST. The government of India has identified the university as a Special Centre. The university provides 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 a DST supported Regional Sophisticated Instrumentation Centre along with a Central Instrumentation Laboratory (CIL) and a 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) promotes the academic-industry interface.

Energy Research Centre

The Energy Research Centre was established in 1983 at Panjab University to promote R&D and Extension activities in Renewable Energy. The Energy Research Centre is the only R&D centre in the country designated as a Nodal Agency for the implementation of the programmes of MNES.

The centre has been designated as a regional test centre for testing solar thermal equipment by MNES. The Bureau of Indian Standard has approved the centre for testing wood burning stoves. The centre has provided consultancy to countries in the Asia-Pacific region such as the Maldives, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Kiribati and Tuvalu, in the area of renewable energy sources, energy management and environmental protection.

The centre has helped the states of Haryana, Panjab and Himachal Pradesh in solving problems associated with energy planning, management and environmental protection. In 2010 Panjab University, for its excellence in co-operation projects with the corporate world in India, was chosen to be a part of the BBNM Group. Today, they are represented among the BBNM Member schools.

The centre has done work on 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. The Energy Research Centre has professional contacts with universities such as the University of Florida, the University of Cincinnati, SRI International USA, and Lakehead University in Canada. 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 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 and management and Environmental protection.

LHC project

The university has participated in the project called 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.

Campus

Halls of Residence

There are sixteen hostels on the campus including seven hostels for men and nine women hostelsincluding a Working Women Hostel. A Sports Hostel has been built for visiting sports teams. Two more hostels are under construction, one each for boys and girls, on the south campus in Sector-25.

All the hostels have Wi-Fi internet and multiple messes for students. There are also shopping centres and ATMs for students and faculty on campus. The Dean, Student Welfare and the Dean Student Welfare (Women) look after the functioning of the university hostels, conduct of election to the student bodies, planning and organising of cultural and extra-curricular activities on the Campus. They disburse cultural scholarships and financial assistance to campus students.

Health Services

The University Health Centre offers consultancy, clinical and emergency services. There are five full time doctors, including one medical specialist, one surgical specialist and one dental specialist. Part-time consultants include a gynecologist, a pediatrician, a radiologist, an eye specialist, a Ayurvedic doctor and two general physicians. They are supported by a large paramedical staff.

Beside regular consultancy, medicines and emergency attention, employees and students have access to facilities like the clinical tests, ECG, X-Ray, ultrasonic treatment, diathermy and Yoga. The centre runs a Family Welfare Clinic with facilities of family planning, vaccination and immunisation of children (DPT, Polio and BCG). From time to time the Health Centre launches health awareness drives through lectures, film shows and workshops.

Sports

The University has playgrounds, a gymnasium and a swimming pool for its sports activities. The Directorate of Sports organises about 70 Inter-College and four to five Inter-University Competitions every year. The Directorate of Sports participates in 62 games both for men and women in the Inter-University Competitions and arranges training camps in these games under the supervision of expert coaches. The University was awarded Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) trophy for the year 2004-05.

Student Politics

As Panjab University is one of the prominent universities in Chandigarh, most of the colleges are affiliated to it. Following are some of the active student organizations in the region.

• SAP- Student Organization of Punjab
• SOPU - Students Organisation of Panjab University
• PUSU - Punjab University Students Union
• NSUI - National Students Union of India (INC)
• SOI - Student Organisation of India (SAD, Punjab)
• INSO - Indian National Student Organization (INLD, Haryana)
• ABVP - Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (BJP)
• HSA- Hindustan Student Acossiation

Notable alumni

• Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resource Development
• Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition (BJP)
• Selja Kumari, MP/Union Minister
• Hargobind Khorana, Nobel Laureate Biotechnologist
• Kiran Bedi, first IPS Officer
• Sukhbir Singh Badal, President of SAD
• Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister of Haryana
• Swatanter Kumar, former Chief Justice, High Court, Mumbai
• Kalpana Chawla, NASA Astronaut. Died on February 1, 2003 in Space Shuttle Columbia accident
• Manmohan Singh, Prime minister of India
• I. K. Gujral, former Prime minister of India
• Tarun Tejpal, founder-editor Tehelka
• Yash Pal, scientist and educator
• K. K. Aggarwal, engineer, professor and eminent IT expert
• Gul Panag, actress and model
• Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder, chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises
• Shankar Dayal Sharma, ninth President of India

• Notable Panjab University People
• 

  Shankar Dayal Sharma, ninth President of India
• 

  I. K. Gujral, 12th Prime Minister of India
• 

  Kalpana Chawla, NASA Astronaut
• 

  Manmohan Singh, current Prime Minister of India