University of Mumbai


The University of Mumbai, informally known as Mumbai University is a collegiate public state university located in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It offers bachelors, masters and Doctoral courses, as well as diplomas and certificates in many disciplines like the Arts, Commerce, Science, Medical and Engineering. The language of instruction for most courses is English.
The University of Mumbai was established in 1857. The university has two campuses across Mumbai and two outside Mumbai, one of them being Thane Sub Campus. The Fort campus carries out administrative work only. Several institutes in Mumbai previously affiliated to the university are now autonomous institutes or universities.
The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. The university in 2013 had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed head of Mumbai University's advisory council.

History

In accordance with "Wood's despatch", drafted by Sir Charles Wood in 1854, The University of Bombay was established in 1857 after presentation of a petition from the Bombay Association to the British colonial government in India. The University of Mumbai was modeled on similar universities in the United Kingdom, specifically the University of London.
The first departments established were the Faculty of Arts at Elphinstone College in 1835 and the Faculty of Medicine at Grant Medical College in 1845. Both colleges existed before the university was founded and surrendered their degree-granting privileges to the university. The first degrees awarded in 1862 were Bachelor of Arts and Licentiate in Medicine.
Initially, the Town Hall in Mumbai was used as the university's offices.
Cornelia Sorabji, who later studied law at Somerville College becoming Oxford's first female law student and India's first female advocate, was the university's first female graduate in 1888.
Until 1904, the university only conducted examinations, awarded affiliations to colleges, developed curricula and produced guidelines for colleges developing curricula. Teaching departments, research disciplines and post-graduate courses were introduced from 1904 and several additional departments were established. After India achieved independence in 1947, the functions and powers of the university were re-organised under The Bombay University Act of 1953. The name of the University was changed from University of Bombay to University of Mumbai in 1996.
In 1949, student enrollment was 42,272 with 80 affiliated colleges. By 1975, these numbers had grown to 156,190 and 114 respectively.

Campuses

Kalina Campus

The Kalina campus in suburban Mumbai covers an area of and houses graduate training and research centres. Departments offering courses in the sciences, technology, commerce, and humanities are located here. Most colleges of engineering and medicine affiliated to the University of Mumbai, though, are privately owned. The university does not have its own engineering or medicine departments.
Centres and institutes located in the Kalina Campus include:
The Thane Campus, established in 2014, spans an area of and is a modern, two-storey complex. It houses administrative offices, the School of Law, University of Mumbai and also undertakes management courses.

Fort Campus

The University of Bombay was established in 1857 at the Fort campus, which is located near the southern end of Mumbai island. It houses the administrative division of the university on a site. It has of built-up area, of classrooms, and of laboratory space. There are two post-graduate centres, 354 affiliated colleges, and 36 departments. It is built in the Gothic style and the Rajabai Clock Tower stands on the lawns of the campus.

Library

The university library was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott at the same time as the Rajabai Clock Tower. It is today part of the Victorian complex in Mumbai that is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Rajabai Clock Tower

One of Mumbai's landmarks, the Rajabai Clock Tower was completed in the 1870s and houses the University of Mumbai's library. Sir George Gilbert Scott modelled the Rajabai Clock Tower on the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster in London. Local businessman Premchand Roychand contributed to the cost of construction and named the tower in memory of his mother, Rajabai. The tower is tall and has five storeys. At a height of from the ground, there are eight statues representing the Indian castes. The tower clock is reported to have played 16 tunes including Rule, Britannia. On the initiative of the then Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Rajan Welukar, the first phase of restoration of Rajabai Clock Tower started in 2013 and was completed in May 2015. Tata Consultancy Services gave a Rs 4 crore grant for this phase of the restoration project.

Convocation Hall

The Cowasji Jehangir Convocation Hall was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and is today part of the Victorian complex, north of Oval Maidan, that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ratnagiri Campus

This minor campus, running mostly extramural courses, is located in the town of Ratnagiri.

Faculties and departments

The University of Mumbai has several hundred affiliated colleges offering undergraduate and postgraduate education, and conducting research in areas of science, commerce, arts, engineering, management, law, etc. Each college has its own campus and specialized departments/centres.

Prominent institutes

Several departments of the University of Mumbai are located away from the three Mumbai campuses. These include the departments of Medicine and Medical Research located in several prominent hospitals in Mumbai, such as the Tata Memorial Hospital, Bombay Hospital and G.S. Medical College and King Edward Memorial Hospital. Institute of Chemical Technology, was originally an institution of MU, but later gained university status. Tata Memorial Hospital is now affiliated to the Homi Bhabha National Institute.
Similarly, Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute was the first Engineering Institute in the University of Mumbai and Thadomal Shahani Engineering College was the first Engineering college in the University of Mumbai to start courses in Computer Engineering, Information Technology, Electronics Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. Sardar Patel College of Engineering is another engineering college affiliated to the University. Further, K.J. Somaiya College of Engineering is additional engineering college affiliated to the University. Along with these, D.Y.Patil's Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology & SIES Graduate School of Technology are also affiliated to the University of Mumbai.
The Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies was established in 1965 in collaboration with Stanford Graduate School of Business of Stanford University. Sophia College for Women was established in 1941.

Libraries

Jawaharlal Nehru Library is the central library, located on the campus at Kalina. As of May 2019, it desperately needs restoration.
The technology and applied research journals and books of the University of Mumbai are kept in the libraries of the Institute of Chemical Technology, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and Tata Memorial Hospital.

Sports

The university's cricket team is the most successful in the Rohinton Baria Trophy, with 28 wins.

Vice-Chancellors

Ranking

Internationally, the University of Mumbai ranked 801–1000 by the QS World University Rankings in 2020, 177 in Asia in 2020 and 89 among BRICS nations in 2019.
The National Institutional Ranking Framework ranked it 65th among universities in India in 2020.

Partner universities

Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with University of Amsterdam, University of Bath, Liverpool Hope University, Ryerson University, IESEG School of Management, Tianjin University of Technology, Nankai University in China and Edith Cowan University in Australia.