The Central University of Punjab (CUPB) is a public central university located in Bathinda, in the state of Punjab, India. It was established by an Act of the Parliament of India in 2009 as part of a wider initiative to set up new central universities in states that did not previously have one. The university offers postgraduate, doctoral, and integrated programmes across the sciences, social sciences, languages, and humanities.
| Name | Central University of Punjab |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | CUPB |
| Type | Central university (public) |
| Established | 2009 |
| Founding statute | Central Universities Act, 2009 |
| Location | Bathinda, Punjab, India |
| Country | India |
The Central Universities Act, 2009 provided for the establishment of central universities in fifteen states, including Punjab. The law was intended to expand access to higher education at the central level and to address regional gaps in the network of central universities, which until then had been concentrated in only a few states. The Central University of Punjab was one of the institutions created under this Act, with the Government of India serving as its sponsoring authority through the Ministry of Education (formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development).
The university is situated in the Bathinda district of southern Punjab, a region historically known as the Malwa belt. Bathinda is one of the larger cities of the region and is connected by rail and road to the rest of Punjab and to neighbouring states such as Haryana and Rajasthan. The university campus is located on the outskirts of the city, on land allotted by the Government of Punjab for the project.
The university is organised into schools rather than the traditional faculty-and-college system, with each school containing one or more departments or centres. Areas of teaching and research include:
Programmes are offered primarily at the master's, MPhil, and PhD levels, with several integrated five-year courses combining undergraduate and postgraduate study.
As a central university, CUPB follows the standard governance structure laid down in the Central Universities Act. The Visitor of the university is the President of India. The Chancellor is the titular head, while the Vice-Chancellor is the principal academic and executive officer responsible for day-to-day administration. The university is governed through statutory bodies including the Court, the Executive Council, the Academic Council, the Finance Committee, and the Board of Studies of each department.
The establishment of CUPB gave Punjab its first central university, complementing the state's existing public universities such as Panjab University in Chandigarh, Punjabi University in Patiala, and Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar. By locating the campus in Bathinda, the central government also sought to support higher-education infrastructure in the Malwa region, which had fewer research-intensive institutions than the central and northern parts of the state.