Patna University, Patna

Patna University was established by an Act of the Imperial Legislative Council passed in September 1917, beginning operations in October 1917 as an affiliating and examining body under its first vice-chancellor, J.G. Jennings. Its Senate and Syndicate were formed in 1919, and the Wheeler Senate House was built in 1926. Initially, the university held jurisdiction over higher education institutes in Bihar, Odisha, and Nepal, overseeing examinations from school finals to postgraduate levels for nearly four decades. On 2 January 1952, it became a purely teaching-cum-residential university limited to metropolitan Patna. The Chancellor is the Governor of Bihar, while the vice-chancellor serves as chief executive, currently Dr. Ajay Kumar Singh. The university has 30 departments organised into eight faculties: Science, Humanities, Commerce, Social Sciences, Education, Law, Fine Arts, and Medicine. It is an affiliating institution with eleven affiliated colleges within Patna city. The Patna University Students' Union (PUSU) represents students, with elections held periodically. The university offers distance education since 1974, has a Central Library established in 1919 with over 400,000 volumes, is recognized under Section 12B of the UGC Act, and received a 'B+' NAAC grade in 2019.