Temple
of excellence
By Avenues team
The Pioneer - September 3, 2000
http://www.hvk.org/hvk/
Banaras Hindu University (BHU) was founded
in 1916 by the great nationalist leader Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya with the
co-operation of great stalwarts of Indian history such as Dr Annie Besant who
dreamt of BHU as the great University of India.
BHU was created under the Parliamentary
legislation - BHU Act 1915, with a view to promote higher learning, and the
creative and innovative instincts of students by providing them with quality
academic education.
BHU, set up in the holy city of Banaras played
a pivotal role during the Independence Movement. Today , it has
evolved as a great centre for teaching.
It boasts of having nurtured several prominent
freedom fighters and builders of modern India.
It also has the distinction of contributing in
terms of its academic excellence in the progress of the country.
The University comprises of three institutes,
14 faculties, 124 departments, four interdisciplinary centres and three
constituent schools, offering scores of subjects pertaining to varied branches
of humanities, social sciences, sciences, technology, medicine, fine arts and
performing arts.
It boasts of six centres of advanced studies,
10 departments under the special assistance programme and a large number of
specialised research centres.
Four degree college of the city are affiliated
to the University.
The University also has a renown and sacred
Vishwanath Temple that is revered as the spiritual centre of the University.
BHU also has a sprawling campus of 2,700 acres
in the district of Mirzapur 90 km away from Varanasi, known as the Barkachha
Campus. At present, the campus has a Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of the
Institute of Agriculture, a Guest House, a post-graduate hostel, a cow shed and
a large number of agricultural research farms. Demonstrations are given by
scientists and technologists.
Technical know-how, hybrid seeds, plant
protection chemicals, fertilisers etc are provided by the Indian Council for
Agricultural Research, New Delhi. Students of the Institute of
Agriculture, BHU periodically visit the KVK Centre for training.
The Barkachha Campus boasts of sylvan
surroundings that include hilly ranges, water falls, streams, springs and
greenery.
BHU is one of the first few universities in
the country to have established the academic Staff College in the later part of
1987.
The academic Staff College has been engaged in
multifarous activities relating to the professional development of the academic
staff.
It provides the requisite exposure to the
university and college teachers to enable them develop their interests in their
respective fields of specialisations by conducting orientation and refresher
courses. BHU also has within its campus three constituent schools aimed at
offering value and culture based education at the primary, secondary and senior
secondary levels.
The faculty of visual arts at BHU is one of
the leading institutions of fine arts in India. The faculty encourages on
optimum interaction with the centres of art all over the country, it organises
art fairs and exhibitions with an aim to encourage talents and get students
their due recognition..
The Faculty of Science comprises of 13
departments covering almost all branches in modern science. Two vocational
courses, Industrial Microbiology and Electronics Instrumentation and
Maintainance have been introduced recently at the under-graduate level.
The School of Biotechnology possess a
Bio-informatics User Centre. The Department of Chemistry has been
conducting research in frontier areas of subjects like nuclear and radio
chemistry, organo-metallic chemistry and biosensors. The Department of
Geography offers a highly specialised course in satellite imagery
interpretation. The Department of Statistics has two major research
projects sponsored by the Rockfeller Foundation. the Department of Botany
along with that of Statistics, have introduced self-financed courses in
population studies and environmental sciences. The Faculty of Sanskrit
Vidya Dharam Vijnan imparts ancient learning in traditional as well as modern
aspects.
The main objective of the Faculty is to
preserve and develop the ancient and traditional treasure of knowledge. It
consists of eight departments and has a publication wing of its own.
The Institute of Medical Sciences is the only
tertiary medical institute of its kind in India which imparts education in all
the disciplines of modern medicine and Ayurveda at the under graduate and the
post-graduate levels.
The main campus is spread over an area of
1,300 acres and is bestowed with buildings that are architectural delights and
verdant surroundings.
There is an air field at the campus as well,
started for military training and flying during World War II. The campus
also possess a museum, the Bharat Kala Bhavan which is a veritable treasure of
rare collections. The university consists of about 15,000 students and
2,000 teaching and nearly 5,000 non-teaching staff.
Quite true to its motto which says: The end of
all knowledge is the attainment of immortality, BHU has not only striven to
promote higher learning and quality academic research it has at the same time
emphasised on building the character of the youth by making religion and ethics
a part of the education process.
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