university of kerala

The University of Kerala (UoK), formerly the University of Travancore,[1] is an affiliating university[2] located in Trivandrum in the state of Kerala, India. It was established in 1937, long before the birth of the state of Kerala in India, by a promulgation of the Maharaja of Travancore, Sri Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma who was also the first Chancellor of the university. Sir C P Ramaswamy Ayyar, the then Diwan of the State, was the first Vice-Chancellor. It was the sixteenth university to be set up in India, and ten colleges within the state of Travancore which were affiliated to Madras University became the affiliated colleges of the University of Travancore.

In 1954, the unified state of Kerala came into being with most of Travancore and the whole of the state of Cochin and Malabar area of Madras presidency becoming part of it. The Kerala University Act (Act 14 of 1957) was brought into force and the University of Travancore was renamed University of Kerala. The university had three campuses located in the state viz. Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode.

In 1968, the University Centre at Kozhikode became a full-fledged university, the University of Calicut, affiliating the colleges located in Thrissur, Palakkad, Kozhikode and Kannur districts of Kerala and transforming the Kozhikkode Centre into university departments. The Cochin University of Science and Technology – CUSAT -- (1971), Kerala Agricultural University (1971) and Mahatma Gandhi University (1983) were established, with CUSAT taking over the university’s centre at Cochin. These developments have shrunk the jurisdiction of the University of Kerala to Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha Districts and some parts of Pathanamthitta District.
The administrative building in Palayam, Trivandrum

At present, the university has sixteen faculties and forty one departments of teaching and research in addition to study centres and other departments. Teaching, research, and knowledge extension are the mandate of the departments. They primarily focus on post-graduate (masters) programmes, MPhil programmes (1-year research degree) and doctoral research. In 2007, the university awarded over 100 PhDs. The university’s research activities also go on in affiliated colleges and other research centres in and outside the state.

The university has had in its faculties eminent scholars who were trained under legendary figures (Sir C V Raman’s student in Dept of Physics, Prof S R Ranganathan’s student in Library Science and Prof Benjamin Bloom’s student in Dept of Education). Some of the faculty members themselves were legends, such as famous poet K Ayyappa Panciker, Oriental scholar T Ganapathi Sasthri etc. The total number of full-time students in the University Departments is above 2000 including research students and a modest number of foreign students. The Institute of Distance Education offers a number of under-graduate and post graduate programmes which cater to more than 7000 students, all over the country and abroad.

The university has study centres in areas such as Nanotechnology, Kerala Studies, Bioinformatics, Women's Studies, Learning Difficulties, Sree Narayana Studies, Gandhian Studies etc. Some of these centres have taught programmes (Certificate/Diploma/Masters/Mphil) and many offer PhD programmes. The university has established ten University College of Teacher Education (UTEC) and eight University Institute of Technologies (UIT) both of which offer under-graduate programmes (BEd in UTECs and BSc Computer Science/IT, Electronics/BBA in UITs), although masters programmes are available in select UITs. The University College of Engineering at Kariavattom offers Engineering Education at Undergraduate level. These institutions together have a student strength of more than 5000.

The university has over 150 affiliated colleges. The role of the university is in prescribing courses of study and conducting examinations and issuing certificates. The day-to-day administration of these institutions is not under the control of the university. However, these institutions form a major part of the University. Of these 60 are Arts and Science colleges. There are 2 Law colleges, 17 Engineering Colleges, 9 MBA/MCA Colleges, 37 Teacher Training Colleges, 4 Medical Colleges, 4 Ayurveda colleges, 2 Homeopathy Colleges, one Siddha Medical College, 3 Dental Colleges, 10 Nursing Colleges, 4 Pharmacy Colleges, 2 Fine Arts Colleges, and a Music College. The university also has a National College of Physical Education affiliated to it. The total number of students in these colleges is around more than 100,000.

The university follows the choice based credit and semester system for all post-graduate (masters) programmes and is in the process of introducing this at under-graduate (bachelors) level. Semesters typically fall during the months of August–January and February–July.

Its supreme bodies – Senate and Academic Council have large number of elected members and students are represented in both. The executive body of the university, the Syndicate also has a student representative in it (for the first time in Indian Universities, in 1977).

The university Union has been a presence in university life since 1939. To serve the students who are away from the head-quarters at Trivandrum, University Study Centres have been set up with UGC assistance, at Kollam, Alappuzha and Pandalam. Besides these, there are 13 Taluk Information Centres. The university also supplies information to students through the Help-desks in affiliated colleges. The Co-ordinator of the National Service Scheme Programme and the Director of the Student Services organize youth welfare activities with the active co-operation of the University Students’ Union. The University bagged the Indira Gandhi National Award for the best NSS activities in 2005.

The Department of Physical Education nurtures sports among students. The University stadium in the heart of the city has a synthetic track. The university has a main library near its city campus and caters to all students, staff and public. In addition to this Kariavattom campus has a Campus Library. Department libraries and College libraries complete the information service to students.

In addition to Departments, Centres and Affiliated colleges, the university has other institutions under it:

    The Academic Staff College set up with aid of the University Grants Commission, offers in-service courses to teachers in higher education and has trained over 15,000 teachers.

    The Centre for Adult & Continuing Education (CACEE) aims at ‘further education of the educated’ for which it received UNESCO- NLM award for literacy in 2005.

    The Department of Publications, one of the oldest departments of the university, has brought out noteworthy publications including Saraswathi Kantabharanam, a treatise on Sanskrit Grammar, the five volume Kerala Sahitya Charithram by Mahakavi Ulloor S. Parameswara Ayyar and Sahithya Nayakanmar (Men of Letters) Series, Chitra Ramayana, based on palm-leaf manuscripts and the recent English and Malayalam translations of Hortus Malabaricus, the classical treatise on the plant wealth of Asia and the tropics. A Malayalam Lexicon is being attempted by the Lexicon Dept. Seven volumes of the proposed eleven-volume Malayalam Lexicon have been released so far and the editing work of the remaining four volumes is progressing.

    The University Computer Centre spearheads the university’s e-Governance initiatives. Computing support for research is no longer centralised, with the advent of affordable desktop computing power. The university’s main campus in Kariavattom is connected to the internet with broad-band connection flowing into hundreds of computers. The university web site was started in 2000.

Since 1946 the university has published the Journal of Indian History. The International Journal of Kerala Studies is an established Journal. The Manuscript Library of the university is a treasure trove of Indian culture. The library has over 65,000 works in 30,000 copies mainly of palm leaf manuscripts. In addition, some paper manuscripts, a few copper plates, writings on Bhurjapatra (birch bark), Agarutvak (the bark of Amyris agallocha) and textiles are also found in the collection. The manuscript collection includes those belonging to other Indian states and nations such as Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal etc. About eighty per cent of the collections are in Sanskrit. The initial moulds of scripts of modern Indian languages like Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu, Oriya, Assamese and Burmese are also found.

    The Centre for Adult & Continuing Education (CACEE) received the UNESCO- NLM award for literacy in 2005. The first world Malayalam Conference was organised by the University of Kerala in 1977.

The university has honoured scholars, scientists and technologists, artists and thought leaders with honorary degrees. Amartya Sen, K. J. Yesudas, Laurie Baker, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, Bharatha Rathna M. S. Subbulakshmi, Semmangudi Sreenivasa Iyer, Harikesanallur Muthaiha Bhagavathar, O N V Kurup, G Madhavan Nair, Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Ilya Prigogine are among the recipients.

The University Grants Commission has identified the university as one of the 26 institutions selected for promotion of India Studies by foreign students. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council(NAAC) has placed the university at the B++ grade. University’s supreme bodies – Senate and Academic Council and the executive body of the University, the Syndicate, also has student representation in it (for the first time in Indian Universities, in 1977).