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Occupying the southeastern lap of Punjab,
Punjabi University
was established on April 30, 1962
in the erstwhile princely state of Patiala.
It happened to be the only University in the world to be named after a regional
language after the Hebrew University of Israel. Started with the main objective
of furthering the cause of Punjabi language, art and literature, it has since
evolved into a multi-faceted, multi-faculty educational institute of higher
learning with 65 Teaching and Research Departments, four Regional Centres and
139 Colleges affiliated to it. From being the smallest University in the State
just a few years back, Punjabi
University
has flourished into being the largest one with 500 teachers imparting
instruction and guidance to nearly 9,000 students at its various campuses. More
than 1,600 candidates have already been awarded degrees of doctorate in various
faculties.
In addition to accelerating the pace of
meeting its primary obligation to fostering the academic, intellectual and
scholastic standards, the University has been making genuine and unstinted
efforts for the rural upliftment of society through various means. It includes
the opening up of Yadavindra College of Engineering at Talwandi Sabo in 2004
and Neighborhood Campuses last year in six remote and virtually written off
villages of Rampura Phul, Jhunir, Karandi, Sardoolgarh, Rallah and Delha Sihan
existing in the most backward districts of Bathinda, Mansa and Sangrur. The
most significant aspect of this magnanimous venture is that the village
panchayats of these areas have donated over 300 acres of land costing more than
Rs 50 crore. Moreover, the University has not taken a single penny’s grant from
any commercial or government organization to establish these institutes, called
neighborhood Campuses.
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The University has carried out this
formidable task in its own humble way to take the higher education to the
doorsteps of ruralites and to address to the concerns of the donors of such
vast infrastructure. This has also been done to tackle the problem of
considerably low percentage of rural students getting higher education as a
consequence of low quality education and utterly poor socio-economic conditions
of these ruralites.
To award a clear advantage to the rural youth
where the Neighborhood Campuses have been launched,
the University has made a provision of 50%
reservation for the students from the concerned
sub-division and the remaining 50% to be admitted
from the rest of the rural Punjab. In consonance
with the national policy, the University has made a
provision of 15% of the total seats to be filled on
All-India basis from the rural areas. These campuses
thus are aimed at catalyzing rural transformation
and enable the rural students to compete at the
national levels in all the spheres of life, in
addition to motivating them to strive for higher
goals.
The altruistic campaign of Punjabi University
steered towards bridging the widening gaps between
rural and the urban, rich and the poor, deprived and
the privileged sections of the society is directed
towards
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propagation
of human values in general and rural upliftment in
particular.
The exceptional support from the selfless and
well-meaning donors, who have vouchsafed to help the
deserving recipients, is a pointer towards the
veracity and genuineness of Punjabi University’s
effort.
The University has chalked out a plan to spend Rs 20
crore for raising of new buildings and
infrastructure, along with starting of new courses
in these campuses. Of this, Rs 10 crore have been
extended as grant by the Planning Commission of
India for imparting quality education to the rural
down and outs. This has provided a big fillip to
Punjabi University's effort aimed at providing
technical and professional education at the
doorsteps of the under-privileged students.
While the University has pioneered in setting up of
Neighbourhood Campuses in the hinterlands of Punjab,
the local village panchayats and social
organisations are responding with overwhelming zeal
to enable the educationally and economically
backward rural students compete with their
counterparts in bigger towns and cities, with all
amenities and facilities to back them up. Ours is an
endeavour to reach up to the unreachable, the
uncared-for and those having faced a long innings of
deprivation.
(G.M.)
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