Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara

The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda is a public university located in Vadodara, Gujarat, India. It originated as Baroda College, established in 1881 by Baroda State, and became a public university on April 30, 1949, being renamed after its benefactor Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, former ruler of Baroda State. Pratap Singh Gaekwad, the last Maharaja of Baroda State, founded the university in 1949 following his grandfather's wishes, and established the Sir Sayajirao Diamond Jubilee and Memorial Trust to support education. The university comprises 89 departments across 6 campuses (2 rural and 4 urban) covering 275 acres, offering undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs. Its Faculty of Education and Psychology, established in 1935, trains teachers in child psychology, while the Faculty of Science became independent in 1951 and houses departments such as Biochemistry, Physics, Botany, Chemistry, and the Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, established in 2012. The Department of Physics, founded in 1949, is known for research in condensed matter physics and astrophysics, and counts Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan among its notable alumni. The main building, designed by Robert Fellowes Chisholm, reflects Indo-Saracenic architecture.