Mysore University, Mysore

University of Mysore is a public university in India. It has its main campus in the city of Mysore and extension campuses in the neighbouring districts of Hassan, and Mandya.The motto found on the emblem of the University ‘Nothing is equal to knowledge’ and ‘I always uphold the truth’ summarise the vision and idealism of the founders of the University. The territorial jurisdiction of the University, which originally covered all the nine districts of southern Karnataka State, is now restricted to four districts viz., Mysore, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar. The Medical and Dental colleges in these districts have come under the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (1966) and the Engineering colleges under the Sir M. Visvesvaraya Technological University (1988). The main campus of the university has 39 departments and 12 training and research centres and offers 65 PG programmes and 21 PG diploma programmes. In addition, several units offer support to academic and administrative activities of the University. The faculty strength stands at 316 and the strength of the non teaching staff stands at 992. The total number of PG and Ph. D. students in the Campus stands at 4117. The university has 143 colleges affiliated to it and the the student enrollment in colleges stands at 57167. In addition, the University maintains five constituent colleges, the oldest of them being the Maharaja’s College established in 1833. Later the Yuvaraja’s College was established in 1928 to offer B. Sc courses. In 2005 the Yuvaraja’s College was granted autonomous status. In 1965 the University Evening College and the University College of Fine Arts for Women were founded. In 1972 the University College of Physical Education was started. All these constituent colleges offer under-graduate programmes in Arts, Science, Commerce, Management, Fine Arts, and Physical Education. The Master’s Degree course in Music and in Physical Education are also offered in the College of Fine Arts and the College of Physical Education respectively. During the last five years the University has introduced a five year integrated programme in Physics, Chemistry and Molecular Biology. Also courses have been introduced in Information and Communication Technology, interdisciplinary courses in Development Studies, Women’s Studies and job oriented courses in CIST. The other new initiatives of the University include the establishment of a National Centre for History of Science with UGC assistance, Centre for International Programms, School of Life Sciences, Information Technology Division, Satellite campus of IISc, Patent awareness cell and Entrepreneurial Park in Science and Technology. Nineteen UGC sponsored value added courses have been introduced by the University during the last five years. The university has been giving paramount importance to research in different disciplines since its inception. Proper research environment has been created by appointing eminent scholars, establishing research laboratories, deputing scholars under cultural exchange programme, awarding teacher fellowships, sanctioning research funds and instituting special awards and prizes for original research. In order to promote research, the university has recognized 48 national level institutions for undertaking research in different disciplines. In all 1112 candidates are registered for Ph.D. of which 479 are with fellowships. For monitoring the research activities, the university convenes the meeting of the Post Graduate Council periodically. In the preceding 5 years, the university completed 99 Major Research Projects and 66 Minor Research Projects amounting to Rs. 390 million. The research funding was obtained from government sources and agencies like Advant India Ltd., AICTE, CSIR, DAM Hampi, DAT, DANIDA, DBT, DST, EEC, ICAR, UGC, Canadian International Development Agency, ICSSR, ICMR, and Ford Foundation. University has earmarked Rs. one million per year for funding research by junior faculty. For quality research, facilities have been created like National Single Crystal Diffractometer Facility – in Physics, National Facility for Drosophila Genetic Stocks – in Zoology, Electron Probe Micro Analyzer – in Geology, Seed Pathology lab – in Applied Botany, National Centre for History of Science, Oriental Research Institute, Multimedia laboratory in Kannada Studies and Digitization of the Library. There is a provision for limited number of Junior Research Fellowships for pursuing M.Phil/Research Degree. The university has instituted 30 research fellowships every year to SC/ST students and faculty improvement fellowship to some SC/ST teachers. Many university departments are involved in collaborative research at national level and have international collaborations also. During the last 6 years, the staff members have received 193 awards. Since the first accreditation in 1999, the university faculty have published 1280 papers in international journals and 1343 in national journals. The number of books and edited volumes is 313 and 148 respectively. A large number of general articles, novels, abstracts, etc. were also published. University Industry Interaction Center established as a center for extending consultancy services, functions as a bridge between industry and the university. The Center caters to the requirements of the industry and ensures an effective interface with the appropriate departments of the University to help them in meeting their requirements. Most of the faculty members are involved in consultancy services with reputed companies like DUPONT, ISRO, BARC, NCL, IIT-Chennai, etc. For creating awareness about the facilities and expertise available, the university has been conducting awareness programmes nameed, ‘Know Your Academic Campus’ in which people of surrounding areas are invited. Important areas in which the university has the expertise for providing consultancy include Applied Botany, Sericulture, Micromet Data Generation, Product Analysis and Quality Control, Geology, Biochemistry, Food Science And Nutrition, Psychology, Software Development, etc. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council, an autonomous body of the University Grants Commission (UGC) had accorded the university five-star status. It has has recently been reaccredited as A+, the first one to be accorded that status in India. In addition, the Eighth Plan Review Committee of the UGC has recommended to the State and Central governments that it be upgraded to a `National Centre for Excellence'. It is the 6th oldest university in India and the oldest in the state of Karnataka. It was established in 1916 by the then King of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, after two of his educational experts Dr C. R. Reddy and Thomas Denham, undertook a five-year study of higher education around the world. The structure of the university was designed after a thorough analysis of the functioning of those universities that had as their chief aim the promotion of original research (University of Chicago), those that laid emphasis on the extension of knowledge among the people (University of Wisconsin), and those that combined intellectualism with an educational system calculated to give training for political and social life (University of Oxford and Cambridge). Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya, the Dewan of Mysore at the time, also played a major role in its inception and promotion. It was inaugurated on 27th July 1916. Maharaja's College of Mysore and the Central College of Bangalore, which were previously affiliated to Madras University, became part of the new university. The Act was amended in 1933 and 1939 to make the senate representative of public life and to establish the academic council responsible for the academic affairs of the university. During the reorganization of Mysore state 1956, the Mysore University Act was passed, which made the university an autonomous body. In 1960 the university's graduate centre was set up in the picturesque environs of the Kukkarahalli lake. The national poet and the Jnanpith Award winner, K. V. Puttappa (Kuvempu), a former Vice-Chancellor of the University, christened this campus `Manasagangotri', meaning the eternal spring of the mind. Bangalore University was carved out in 1964 starting with The Central College and the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering. Mangalore University was formed out of the colleges in Dakshina Kannada in 1980. The act of 1956 was replaced by Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000 which came into force on 13th Sep 2001. Under the new act the senate has been abolished. The university library has one of the largest collections in India with the number of volumes exceeding 800,000 documents[citation needed]. The university has been a pioneer in starting five year integrated MScprogrammes in the basic sciences. The department of applied botany, department of library and information sciences, department of food science and nutrition and the department of physics have a national reputation. Taking pride of place among the university's 39 facultywise research areas are applied botany and seed pathology, which attract students from all over Asia, and geology and physics, both of which are designated as `national facilities'The university has been ranked very highly by the NAAC with an A+ rating. It is also no surprise that among the university's faculty members have been such luminaries as Professor S. Chandrashekar (Fellow of the Royal Society), Prof. K. V. Puttappa (Padma Bhushan), Prof. U. R. Ananthamurthy (Padma Bhushan) and Prof. C. D. Narasimhaiah (Padma Bhushan). The university has been appreciated by the UGC and Ministry of Science and Technology for its efforts in making basic sciences more attractive. The university has introduced an Integrated M.Sc courses in physics, chemistry, and Biochemistry. The University also has tied up with various Chinese universities for resource sharing and training in information technology education. The university has also initiated a next generation I-School at its campus. The International School of Information Management(ISiM), has been initiated with the collaboration of a few US universities and IIIT- Bangalore. Faculties from partnering institutions teach in this Institute. ISiM, already has secured grants from Ford Foundation and several industries for various projects. Another innovation has been the setting up of the Third Sector Research Resource Centre (TSRRS).The Research Resource Centre has been set up with a grant from the Ford Foundation. The aim of the centre is to provide centralized infrastructural facility for researchers pursuing their studies in the area of Civil Society. TSRRC aims at pursuing and supporting research, training and consultancy in the area of Third Sector. Developing and offering Diploma and Masters program in the area of Non Profit Management is another area of focus. Recently the department of law in the university was incorporated into the Mysore University School of Justice (MUSJ). Continuing with the initiative of the university to introduce five-year integrated courses to produce professionals with in-depth knowledge, the MUSJ has introduced a programme leading to a degree in Law, in a bid to enhance the quality of legal education in Karnataka. The newly constituted Bahadur Institute of Management Sciences is teying to carve a niche for management education and research in the state. It was set up with the help of contributions from the chairman of BBK Ltd, U.S.A., B.N. Bahadur, an alumnus of the university Setting up of a National Centre for History of Science, Digital Library, Centre for International Programmes, School of Life Sciences, IT Division, Joint Campus with Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Patent Awareness Cell and Entrepreneurial Park in Science & Technology are the main initiatives of the University. In the last five years, an Archeological and Folklore Museum has been established in the Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion with the donation from the Infosys Foundation. School of Design and the Centre for Information Science and Technolgoy have been given autonomy for better functioning.