Flashback 60 years of GU
Yogesh Avasthi takes you on a sepia-tinted tour of Gujarat University as it celebrates shashtipurti with 3.5 lakh students in its 356 colleges
Posted On Tuesday, November 24, 2009 (Ahmedabad Mirror : http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=2009112420091124023152671d48376b3)
♦ The idea of setting up Gujarat University was conceived in 1920s by a group of learned men including Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Acharya Anandshankar Dhruva and Kasturbhai Lalbhai.
♦ The Gaekwad royal family was keen on setting up Gujarat University in Vadodara. However, later on it was decided the university will be set up in Ahmedabad after industrialist Kasturbhai Lalbhai and other prominent individuals offered their lands for building the campus.
♦ GU was established on November 23, 1949, and incorporated under the Gujarat University Act of the state government as ‘a teaching and affiliating university’. This was done as a measure of decentralisation and re-organisation of university education in the then Province of Bombay.
♦ The first VC of GU was H N Harsiddhbhai Divetia who served from 1950 to 1958. The first registrar was H R Trivedi.
♦ Its first executive council meeting was held on November 1, 1950. The foundation for the building structure was also laid the same year by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
♦ In 1949, GU had 16,000 students studying in 26 colleges affiliated to it. Of these colleges were in city and the rest in Surat, Nadiad, Petlad, Kheda, Rajkot, Bhuj, Visnagar and Bhavnagar.
♦ Back then, it offered courses in seven disciplines: Arts, Commerce, Science, Medicine, Education, Engineering, Agriculture
♦ Today, GU is the largest university in the state with 356 colleges and 3.5 lakh students of which 60,000 are external students. It covers institutions spread over 1,000 km area of the state and offers more than 80 full-time and part-time courses in various disciplines
♦ Till now the university has seen 14 Vice Chancellors and eight Pro-Vice Chancellors
♦ In these 60 years, more than 30 govt-run and private universities have sprouted up in the state.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the foundation-stone laying ceremony
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru walks up to the dais to make a speech at the Gujarat University campus
Historian Kakasaheb Kelkar (left) and litterateur Uma Shankar Joshi (third from left) at GU convocation ceremony
The first foreign delegation to visit the university
GU awards doctorate to Vinoba Bhave (extreme right) in 1956
Morarji Desai (in the Gandhi cap) was the chief guest at GU convocation held in 1953
Posted On Tuesday, November 24, 2009 (Ahmedabad Mirror : http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=2009112420091124023152671d48376b3)
♦ The idea of setting up Gujarat University was conceived in 1920s by a group of learned men including Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Acharya Anandshankar Dhruva and Kasturbhai Lalbhai.
♦ The Gaekwad royal family was keen on setting up Gujarat University in Vadodara. However, later on it was decided the university will be set up in Ahmedabad after industrialist Kasturbhai Lalbhai and other prominent individuals offered their lands for building the campus.
♦ GU was established on November 23, 1949, and incorporated under the Gujarat University Act of the state government as ‘a teaching and affiliating university’. This was done as a measure of decentralisation and re-organisation of university education in the then Province of Bombay.
♦ The first VC of GU was H N Harsiddhbhai Divetia who served from 1950 to 1958. The first registrar was H R Trivedi.
♦ Its first executive council meeting was held on November 1, 1950. The foundation for the building structure was also laid the same year by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
♦ In 1949, GU had 16,000 students studying in 26 colleges affiliated to it. Of these colleges were in city and the rest in Surat, Nadiad, Petlad, Kheda, Rajkot, Bhuj, Visnagar and Bhavnagar.
♦ Back then, it offered courses in seven disciplines: Arts, Commerce, Science, Medicine, Education, Engineering, Agriculture
♦ Today, GU is the largest university in the state with 356 colleges and 3.5 lakh students of which 60,000 are external students. It covers institutions spread over 1,000 km area of the state and offers more than 80 full-time and part-time courses in various disciplines
♦ Till now the university has seen 14 Vice Chancellors and eight Pro-Vice Chancellors
♦ In these 60 years, more than 30 govt-run and private universities have sprouted up in the state.
The final model of Gujarat University
