Bangalore
University located in the Garden City of Bangalore aptly hailed as the “IT
capital of India” was established in July 1964 as an offshoot of the University
of Mysore, primarily to include institutions of Higher learning located in the
metropolitan city of Bangalore and the districts of rural Bangalore, Kolar.
Initially, the two premier colleges of the city, the Central College(CC) and the
University Vivesvaraya College of Engineering formed the nucleus of the
Bangalore University. Soon after the establishment of the Bangalore University,
as a first step in the reorganization of courses of instructions, the University
introduced Honours courses in the year 1965-66.
Three-year
honours courses in Botany, Chemistry, Economics, English, Geology, Kannada,
Mathematics and Zoology which were conducted only at the University postgraduate
departments, attracted many brilliant students. All honours-passed students were
admitted to post-graduate courses on priority and B.A. and B.Sc. graduates who
marginally missed admission to the postgraduate courses were given an
opportunity to join the final year honours course and seek admission to
post-graduate courses thereafter. Since 1964,
Bangalore
University has grown both in size and strength to include a large number of
affiliated colleges, P.G. Centres of research and a rich diversity of programme
options. In consonance with this expansion, in 1973 the University moved into a
new campus ‘Jnana Bharathi’ (JB) located on a sprawling 1,100 acres of land and
shifted many of its post-graduate departments to this newly established campus.
At present, the JB Campus houses the administrative office a large number of
post-graduate departments, Directorates, Centres of higher learning, Gandhi
Bhavan, Ambedkar Bhavan, NSS Bhavan, Outdoor Stadium and other support services.
The Central College Campus retained as the city campus houses the main
examination wing with the office of Registrar Evaluation, city offices of the
Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Finance (Examination part), Academic Staff College,
Directorate of Correspondence Courses and Distance Education Centre, Directorate
of College Development Council, a few postgraduate departments and support
services. Besides, the college also has the Central College Cricket Pavilion
where the Karnataka State Cricket Association was first established and trained
several cricketers of International repute. Apart from this, in the vicinity of
the city campus, the University has two constituent colleges, the University
Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (U.V.C.E started in 1917). The third
constituent college, the University College of Physical Education (formerly
known as the Government College of Physical Education, started in 1959) is
located in the JB Campus. Since 1973, the University is functioning from both
the campuses- the main campus at Jnana Bharathi and the City Campus at Central
College.