DAV University is a state private university located in Jalandhar, in the Indian state of Punjab. It is part of the wider Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) network of educational institutions, which trace their lineage to the reformist legacy of Swami Dayanand Saraswati and the Arya Samaj movement. The university offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programmes across disciplines including the sciences, humanities, engineering, management, law, and agriculture.
| Type | State private university |
|---|---|
| Location | Jalandhar, Punjab, India |
| Affiliation | DAV College Managing Committee, New Delhi |
| Inspiration | Swami Dayanand Saraswati / Arya Samaj tradition |
| Country | India |
The DAV movement in India dates back to the late 19th century and has historically been associated with a network of schools and colleges across northern India, run under the aegis of the DAV College Managing Committee headquartered in New Delhi. DAV University in Jalandhar was established as a full-fledged university to extend this educational tradition into higher education at the postgraduate and research levels, complementing the older DAV colleges that had long been affiliated to other universities.
It was set up under the relevant state legislation governing private universities in Punjab, which permits self-financed universities to award their own degrees while remaining subject to oversight by statutory regulators such as the University Grants Commission.
The university operates from a campus on the outskirts of Jalandhar. Academic activity is organised through faculties and schools that cover areas such as:
Programmes are offered at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels, with research carried out through departmental laboratories and centres.
As with other DAV institutions, the university functions under the broad umbrella of the DAV College Managing Committee, while its academic and administrative affairs are handled by statutory bodies prescribed for a private university, including a Board of Governors, an Academic Council, and a Vice-Chancellor as the chief academic and executive officer.
DAV University represents the expansion of the DAV educational network from its traditional base of schools and undergraduate colleges into the university sector. Located in the Doaba region of Punjab, an area with a strong tradition of higher education and significant student migration, it adds to the cluster of universities in and around Jalandhar that includes Lovely Professional University and Guru Nanak Dev University in nearby Amritsar.