Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya

Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, informally known as DAVV (acronym), is a State University whose jurisdiction was initially restricted to Indore city. Later on, its jurisdiction was extended to seven tribal dominated districts of Indore division namely, Jhabua, Alirajpur, Dhar, Khargone, Khandwa, Burhanpur and Barwani. It is thus catering to the educational needs of the most industrially developed district of Madhya Pradesh, Indore on one hand and to the seven tribal and rural backward districts of the State on the other.

History

Statue of Her Highness Maharani Shrimant Akhand Soubhagyavati Ahilya Bai Sahiba at Datta Temple, Sahastra Dhara, Jalkoti

Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya formerly University of Indore was established in 1964 by an Act of Legislature of Madhya Pradesh. His Excellency Dr. Zakir Hussain, then Vice President of India, inaugurated the university in 1964. The jurisdiction of the university was limited to Indore district.

In 1988, the university was renamed after the Holkar Maharani 'Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar' of the Maratha Empire as 'Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya'. The word vishwavidyalaya is Hindi for university, thus, the university is called Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya.

During reorganization of the universities, its jurisdiction was expanded over to Indore division, which spans over seven districts. The executive committee of NAAC has awarded a four-star status to university in 2001 and also has won center of excellence award by Govt. of Madhya Pradesh.

In year 2014 National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accredited the university as an A-grade university.

Campus

The university has its administrative offices and primary school campus on Rabindranath Tagore Marg in Indore. The Takshashila Campus on Khandwa Road is an extension campus directly administered by the university. The university regulates all the schools within the three campuses. There are many other colleges affiliated to the university in Indore division. The university has more than 300 affiliated colleges imparting education at under-graduate and post-graduate levels in basic and professional disciplines. The university has 9000 students in its campus and total over 300,000 students in affiliated colleges.

University spreads over an area of 760 acres in which academic classes holds in Takshila parisar (campus) of university which spreads over an area of 510 acres and Avanti parisar (campus) which spreads over 154 acres. Nalanda parisar (campus) is for administrative and official works which spreads over an area of 100 acres.

Academics

Every college in university teaching department is autonomous.

Conventional courses

During the initial stages of its development 1964-1984, University established conventional School of Studies in Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, and Chemistry. It was one of the first few universities to start B.Ed. in 1968 and MBA in 1969. It later started Life Sciences, Economics, Biochemistry and Journalism.

Self-supporting courses

University is one of the first in starting as early as 1991 the experiment of self-supporting courses in order to have partial support for the development of infrastructure. This experiment has certainly made a positive impact on the overall development of the University both in terms of employment opportunities on one side and students needs on the other.

Engineering courses and medical courses

University made another big move in 1994 by proposing an on-campus Institute of Engineering and Technology (I.E.T.) which has started functioning since 1996 and now runs number of B.E. and M.E. courses. The institute is now ranked among the top colleges in Madhya Pradesh state. The admissions in I.E.T. is held through Madhya Pradesh Pre-Engineering Test (M.P.P.E.T.), which will be further altered in 2014 under which admissions will be held on the basis of all India ranking in Joint Entrance Exam (J.E.E.). University also runs medical and dental colleges.

Excellent and special assistance programme

UGC has granted SAPs to School of Education, School of Economics, School of Life Sciences and School of Physics in the University.

Excellence in Information Technology and Applications

Previous work: University made another big stride during 1998-2002 by establishing campus wide fiber network and Internet facilities throughout the educational and administrative campuses of the University. It is the best I.T. Centre in the central part of the country. M.Sc. (Information Technology) and M.Tech. (Embedded Systems) were also started during this period. Recent Initiatives : University has initiated major thrust from Aug. 2006 for it is installing LCD Projectors and Internet access points in all class rooms, e-management of the University, e-submission of fees and forms by the students, Wi-Fi Campus and Hostels, e-grant of migration and eligibility certificates to students and establishment of e-record room. It is expected that this move will mitigate student hard ship in getting administrative services from University and facilitate its employees to work with latest Computers, Servers and Internet.

Innovations

University is first in Madhya Pradesh in innovation and has made a name in country for (a) Courses in Computer, Information Technology, Management and Engineering (b) Its research work in fields of Education, Life Sciences, Physics, Economics and Chemistry and (c) Excellent Centers for Electronic Media, Adult Education and Information Technology.

Institutes

• Academic Staff College
• Bahá'í Chair for Studies in Development
• Centre for Science Communication
• Centre for e-Business
• Centre for Lifelong Learning
• Department of Adult / Continuing Education & Extension
• Department of Student Welfare (DSW)
• Directorate of Distance Education
• Educational Multimedia Research Centre
• Information & Communication Technology Centre
• Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET)
• Institute of Management Studies (IMS)
• International Institute of Professional Studies
• School of Advanced Liberal Studies
• School of Anthropology
• School of Biochemistry
• School of Biotechnology
• School of Chemical Science
• School of Commerce
• School of Comparative Language & Culture
• School of Computer Science And Information Technology (SCSIT)
• School of Economics
• School of Education
• School of Electronics
• School Of Future Studies And Planning
• School of Law
• School of Life Sciences
• School of Instrumentation

Center of potential of excellence in e management studies

Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya is one of the first few universities which started the MBA course as early as in 1969. Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya is also one of the first few universities who started the computer center and computer courses of MCA and M.Sc. Computer Science in the country as early as 1986. Management and computer schools of studies are known in the country for their new initiatives during last 25 years. They are also known for starting several innovative courses first time in the country. University has also taken one of the first few initiatives in the country in 1998 for setting an Information Technology Center (ITC) with fiber backbone spread all over the campuses and advanced the then fast switches and router based network. ITC has been completed with the provision of high speed Internet access and best of the computing resources for the University students, faculty, research scholars and staff round the clock. UGC have selected DAVV as Centre with Potential for Excellence in e management studies.

Research

Apart from specialized schools of studies university also conducts several research works with assistance of UGC. For this university have a separate committee of deans which suggest ways to streamline the entire process of Ph.D. thesis evaluation mechanism. The university have established a Sodha Peeth on Devi Ahilya to motivate research on regional issues. New postgraduate degree programmes in research on their lines of IITs/Central universities are envisaged.

Central library

The university library was established in the year 1964 along with the establishment of the university. The university library caters to the information needs of the academic community. The university library started the Bachelor of Library and Information Science Program from the 1993–94 year, as a part-time course, with its goals to train the manpower to manage the libraries of the 21st century. The library has over 200,000 books, including various textbooks, research journals, reference books, magazines etc.

Information technology center

IT Centre was established in the year 2000 to create a campus-wide network by interconnecting various campuses and departments. First phase which was completed in April 2001, networked 18 departments having 524 nodes. Second phase was completed in Oct 2002, which connected ten more departments and installed 331 additional nodes. Under UGC-INFONET scheme, from Jan 2004, UGC has provided university free subscription to the various e-journals along with 2 Mbit/s bandwidth through ERNET. Internet access is provided to all departments using fibre optic backbone & 16 Mbit/s leased line.

University cultural center

The university auditorium was inaugurated on 30 September 2005 by His Excellency Dr. Balram Jakhar, Governor, M.P. The auditorium is available for use by DAVV members, governments, and statutory bodies, national, regional, international and other recognized institutions. The auditorium is not available for any political or commercial activity. The decision of vice chancellor in this matter shall be final. The auditorium has two levels, accommodating 1100 seats in the balcony and the main hall. Stairs to the east and west provide access to the balcony.

Legal Atmosphere

DAVV through its law faculty, School of Law has bestowed India and especially Madhya Pradesh with many legal illuminaries in all fields such as litigation, activists, corporate officers etc. SOL (School of Law) is one amongst the oldest and most recognized law schools in Indore and amongst top law schools in state. Its meritorious students viz. Aditya Malpani(Corporate), Asif Khan(Litigation - Indore High Court) etc. have led and held the institution's name high.

Gyanvani FM Radio

Gyanvani FM Radio was established on June 2006. It delivers educational content through radio to cross-segment of the society.

Gyanvani is an educational FM radio station broadcasting in several cities of India. Gyanvani stations operate as media cooperative with day-to-day programmes being contributed by educational institutions, NGOs, government and semi-government organizations, UN agencies, ministries such as Agriculture, Environment, Health, Women and Child Welfare, Science & Technology etc. besides national-level institutions such as NCERT, NIOS and State Open Universities.

Gyanvani, Indore is an educational FM radio station at 105.6 MHz on the premises of EMRC, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidhalaya, Indore in collaboration with IGNOU, New Delhi. The radio station broadcasts educational programs covering all fields of education. Students are involved in the production and broadcasting of radio programs.

References

External links

• Devi Ahilya University: Indore University website
• Educational information, Institutes in Indore, colleges and schools information
• School of Journalism and Mass Communication