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Central University of Gujarat

The Central University of Gujarat (CUG) is a public central university located in Gandhinagar, the capital of the Indian state of Gujarat. It was established by an Act of the Parliament of India and is funded by the Union Government through the Ministry of Education. The university offers postgraduate, MPhil and doctoral programmes across the social sciences, humanities, languages, sciences and interdisciplinary studies.

Key facts

Name Central University of Gujarat
Type Public central university
Established 2009
Founding statute Central Universities Act, 2009
Location Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
Country India
Funding body Ministry of Education, Government of India
Regulator University Grants Commission (UGC)

Background

The Central University of Gujarat was created as part of a wider expansion of central universities in India, in which the Government of India established new central universities in states that did not already host one. The legal basis for this expansion was the Central Universities Act, 2009, which provided for the founding of several such institutions, including those in Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kashmir, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and other states.

Academic structure

The university is organised into schools rather than traditional faculty colleges. These schools group together centres of study that focus on related disciplines. Areas of teaching and research at the university include:

  • Social sciences, including economics, political science and sociology
  • Languages and literature, including Hindi, English, Gujarati and comparative literature
  • International studies, including diaspora and security studies
  • Environment and sustainable development
  • Chemical and life sciences, including nano sciences
  • Education, library and information sciences

The institution offers master's degrees, MPhil and PhD programmes, with admission generally through national-level entrance examinations.

Campus

The university is situated in Gandhinagar in central Gujarat, close to Ahmedabad. It functions from a campus developed for its academic and residential needs, with classroom blocks, laboratories, a central library and hostel facilities for students.

Significance

As the central university for Gujarat, CUG plays a role in providing publicly funded postgraduate and research education in the state, complementing the network of state universities and Institutes of National Importance such as the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar and the National Forensic Sciences University. Its presence reflects the policy goal of ensuring at least one central university in every state of the Indian Union.

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