Mahatma Gandhi Central University

MGCU was established by an Act of Parliament as a central university on 3 February 2016. The university was started in 2016-17 with both UG and PG courses in 7 schools and 15 departments. The Central Universities (Amendment) Act, 2014 which received Presidential assent on December 17, 2014, provided for the establishment of Mahatma Gandhi Central University (MGCU) having its territorial jurisdiction extending to the territory in the North of the River Ganges in the State of Bihar.[1]

MGCU is located at Motihari Bihar India. The nearest airport from the university is at Patna which is approximately 170 Kilometers away from Motihari. Motihari is also connected to all the major cities by train. The nearest railway station is Bapudham Motihari (BMKI) which is approximately 2 kilometers from the Temporary Campus at Zila School, Motihari.

The permanent campus is in developing phase. The permanent campus is being developed at Bankat-Bairiya village, Motihari on 310 acres of land. The nearest railway station is Bapudham Motihari (BMKI) which is approximately 4 kilometers from the permanent campus at Bankat-Bairiya village. Motihari is also well connected to all major cities and towns of Bihar and adjoining states by road through a network of four-lane National Highway.

The university has 7 schools and 20 departments:[2]

• School of Commerce & Management Sciences
  • Department of Commerce
  • Department of Management Sciences
• School of Computational Sciences, Information and Communication Technology
  • Department of Computer Science & Information Technology
  • Department of Library and Information Science
  • Department of Media Studies
• School of Education
  • Department of Educational Studies
• School of Humanities & Languages
  • Department of English
  • Department of Hindi
  • Department of Sanskrit
• School of Life Sciences
  • Department of Biotech and Genome
  • Department of Botany
  • Department of Zoology
• School of Physical Sciences
  • Department of Chemistry
  • Department of Mathematics
  • Department of Physics
• School of Social Sciences
  • Department of Economics
  • Department of Gandhian and Peace Studies
  • Department of Political Science
  • Department of Social Work
  • Department of Sociology

The university admits students to various PG, M.Phil and PhD programmes through the Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET) held yearly, and conducted at centers all over India. [3]

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Central Library (a learning resource centre) of Mahatma Gandhi Central University was established in the year 2016. The university library has more than 26000+ books, 13 magazines, 11 newspapers and 125+ donated book which providing access to scholarly information, research support and study facilities to the teaching and non-teaching staff, students and research scholars.[4]

In 2017, the university terminated two assistant professors without citing any prior notice, which caused heavy protest by the students of university.[5] In June 2018, students of the university launched heavy protest after the university increased fees.[6] Later that month, faculty members sat on hunger strike after the university issued a show cause notice to a professor.[7]

In August 2018, Sanjay kumar, an assistant professor of the university, was attacked for criticising Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in a Facebook post.[8] This led to the closure of the university[9] for a 15 day period.[10]

In October 2018, the vice-chancellor of the university, Arvind Kumar Agrawal, was accused of some anomalies in his educational qualifications.[11] This led to his resignation a week later, and the appointment of the pro-chancellor Anil Kumar Rai for the position.[12]

• Official website