The University of North Bengal (also North Bengal University, abbreviated as NBU) is a public state university in the North Bengal region of West Bengal, India. Its main campus is located in Raja Rammohanpur, Siliguri, Darjeeling district, in the Indian state of West Bengal. Its second campus is located in Danguajhar, Jalpaiguri in Jalpaiguri district and the third campus is located in Salt Lake, Kolkata. The university was established in 1962 by the Government of West Bengal. North Bengal University offers degrees in undergraduate, post-graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral programmes. It is accredited by NAAC with B++ grade.
History
The University of North Bengal was established by The North Bengal University Act, 1961[2] passed by the Legislature of West Bengal and the university started functioning in 1962. It was the first university in the North Bengal region. It initially served the predominantly rural areas in the six North Bengal districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Malda, Uttar Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur, and the neighbouring state of Sikkim.
The university has an annual enrollment of more than 36,000 undergraduate students and more than 1,500 postgraduate students and scholars.
Organisation and administration
Governance
The Vice-chancellor of the University of North Bengal is the chief executive officer of the university. Currently, the post of Vice-Chancellor of the university is vacant.
List of All Vice-Chancellors
B. N. Dasgupta, 1 Jun 1962 – 31 May 1966
A. C. Roy, 1 Jun 1966 – 31 May 1970
P. C. Mukherjee, 1 Jun 1970 - 7 Nov 1974
Amlan Dutta, 8 Nov 1974 - 20 Nov 1977
Prasad Kr. Ghosh, 21 Nov 1977 - 18 Apr 1982
S. N. Sen (acting), 19 Apr 1982 - 9 Sep 1982
H. Bhowmik (acting), 10 Sep 1982 - 14 Sep 1982
D. B. Dutta, 15 Sep 1982 - 31 Aug 1988
K. N. Chatterjee, 1 Sep 1988 - 31 Dec 1995
R. G. Mukherjee, 1 Jan 1996 - 31 Dec 1999
Pijush Kanti Saha, 1 Jan 2000 - 31 Dec 2007
A. Basu Majumdar, 1 Jan 2009 - 31 Mar 2012
Samir Kumar Das, 1 Apr 2012 - 10 Feb 2014
Somnath Ghosh, 11 Feb 2014 - 10 Feb 2018
Subiresh Bhattacharyya, 22 Feb 2018 - 28 Sep 2022
Om Prakash Mishra (interim), 28 Sep 2022 - 21 May 2023
Sanchari Ray Mukherjee (acting), 22 May 2023 – 16 Jul 2023
Rathin Bandhopadhyay (interim), 17 Jul 2023 - 4 Oct 2023
C. M. Ravindran (interim), 5 Oct 2023 - 21 Apr 2024
Faculties and Departments
The University of North Bengal has 30 departments organized into two faculty councils.[3]
Faculty of Science
Department of Anthropology
Department of Bio-Technology
Department of Bioinformatics
Department of Botany
Department of Chemistry
Department of Computer Science & Technology
Department of Food Technology
Department of Geography and Applied Geography
Department of Geology
Department of Mathematics
Department of Microbiology
Department of Pharmaceutical Technology
Department of Physics
Department of Tea Science
Department of Zoology
Faculty of Arts, Commerce & Law
Department of Bangla
Department of Commerce
Department of Education
Department of English
Department of Hindi
Department of History
Department of Law
Department of Library and Information Science
Department of Lifelong Learning and Extension
Department of Management
Department of Mass Communication
Department of Nepali
Department of Philosophy
Department of Sanskrit
Department of Women's Studies
Centres
The university offers affiliation to research and academic centres on and off-campus.
Centre For Studies
University Science & Instrumentation Centre
Computer Centre
Centre for Development Studies
Centre for High Energy & Cosmic Ray
Centre for Remote Sensing Application
Centre for Tea Management
Centre for Mass Communication
Centre for Himalayan Studies
Centre for Women's Studies
Center for Social Research
Centre for Studies in Local Language and Culture
Centre for Tourism and Hotel Management
Centre for Marketing Management
Centre for Ambedkar Studies
Centre for Innovative Studies
North Bengal University Research Centre on Diplomacy and War[4]
Affiliations
The university has several affiliated colleges spread over four districts of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri, and one sub-division Islampur of Uttar Dinajpur district.
The University of North Bengal offers four-year (B.A./B.Sc./B.Com.) undergraduate degrees and a five-year B.A. LLB degree. It also offers two-year M.A., M.Com., M.B.A., M.Sc., M.C.A. and M.Pharm degrees, two-year MPhil degrees and PhD degrees.[5]
The Akshaya Kumar Maitreya Heritage Museum incorporating the Raja Rajaram Museum Collection was established in the University of North Bengal in February 1965. The museum is now a repository for sculpture, coins, paintings and manuscripts among other things related to the history of North Bengal. It is also a regional museum and is one of the few university museums in India. It collects, preserves and studies archaeological relics discovered in the region.
