University of Mysore (also called Manasa Gangotri) is a reputed public university in India. It has its main campus in the city of Mysore and extension campuses in the neighbouring districts of Hassan, Mandya and Chamarajanagar. Currently, nearly 58,000 students study in the university, and it has five constituent colleges, 122 affiliated colleges and 49 recognised research institutions, offering certified, diploma, undergraduate and graduate courses in the faculties of arts, science and technology, law, education and commerce.

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council, an autonomous body of the University Grants Commission (UGC) has accorded the university five-star status. In addition, the Eighth Plan Review Committee of the UGC has recommended to the State and Central governments its upgradation as a `National Centre for Excellence'.

The university library is also one of the largest university libraries in India having a collection of around 800,000 documents.

History

It is the 6th oldest university in India and the oldest in the state of Karnataka. It was established in 1916 by the then King of Mysore, Shree Krishnaraja Wodeyar, after two of his educational experts C. R. Reddy and Thomas Denham, undertook a five-year study of higher education around the world. The structure of the university was designed after a thorough analysis of the functioning of those universities that had as their chief aim the promotion of original research (University of Chicago), those that laid emphasis on the extension of knowledge among the people (University of Wisconsin), and those that combined intellectualism with an educational system calculated to give training for political and social life (University of Oxford and Cambridge ). Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya, the Dewan of Mysore at the time, also played a major role in its inception and promotion.

It became autonomous in 1956, and in 1960 the university's graduate centre was set up in the picturesque environs of the Kukkarahally lake. The national poet and the Jnanpith award winner, K. V. Puttappa (Kuvempu), a former Vice-Chancellor of the University, christened the campus `Manasa Gangotri', meaning the eternal spring of the mind.

The university has had many eminent scholars among its faculty and alumni, like, Professor Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan(the second President of India), Prof. S. Chandrashekar (Fellow of the Royal Society), Prof. K. V. Puttappa (Padma Bhushan), Prof. U. R. Ananthamurthy (Padma Bhushan) Prof. C. D. Narasimhaiah (Padma Bhushan) and R. K. Laxman (Cartoonist, Padma Vibushan, Times of India).

External links

• Official website of University of Mysore