Burdwan University started on 15th June, 1960, with Sukumar Sen, an ICS, as its first Vice-chancellor. It was after the abolition of the Zamindari system in the fifties that Uday Chand Mahtab, the last representative of the Burdwan Raj, showed his magnanimity in leaving almost his entire property of Burdwan at the disposal of the state government. This, coupled with the initiative of the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, facilitated the establishment of this university. Presently, the administrative works are mostly done at Rajbati (the palace of Barddhamana Maharaja) campus; on the other hand, academic activities center around the Golapbag campus mainly.
At the initial phase, only the humanities section began to funcion. After a year, mainstreams of science faculties were included. The starting motto, that this university should have a science-technology bias, in view of the growing needs of industrialisation just around, later found justification when Medical College and Regional Engineering College, Durgapur took shape. There are now about 22 Post-graduate departments in various disciplines. With regard to further expansions, mention may be made of the engineering college, named as University Institute of Technology, which has recently been established under the direct control of this University with the approval from All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
Academically, Burdwan University is feeding and nourishing more than 100 colleges. Its territorial jurisdiction extends over five districts - Burdwan, Hooghly (excluding Serampore Subdivision), Bankura, Birbhum and Purulia. These constitute the greater part of Radh Bengal, the cradle of ancient civilisation of India. The imprints of the past are strewn all over the Radh Bengal.
The university is now in a position to offer courses on diverse disciplines. These include physical education, B.Ed., foreign languages, computer applications, population education, etc. There are also an Adult Continuing Education Center and the Academic Staff College. The university has a museum and art gallery at Rajbati that displays even the pottery of prehistoric age.
The university has its Distance Education wing imparting Post-graduate education in different subjects as well as in some professional courses at Under-graduate level.
With social responsibilities in mind, the university actively patronised the construction of a Science Centre and a Planetarium, named as Meghnad Saha Planetarium. The University has established a Rural Technology Centre in the name of Shri Binoy Krishna Choudhury, the ex-minister of the Government of West Bengal, to impart vocational training and to create scope of self-employment for the rural youth. There are plans for building up of a center of creative art also.
