Prof. Kajal De

Message from the Hon'ble Vice Chancellor

The establishment of the Diamond Harbour Women's University (DHWU) in 2012 by the Hon’ble Chief Minister Smt. Mamata Banerjee led Government of West Bengal is a clarion call for gender equality, empowerment and equity. Being the first women's university in Eastern India, DHWU does every possible thing to ensure an atmosphere of learning, free thinking, research and innovation. Late President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam once said that India’s strength lies in the ‘ignited minds’ who have the power to transform challenges into opportunities and bring prosperity and peace in the country. Indeed, it is a fact that only enlightened minds can bring the positive changes in the condition of women in the society. The ever increasing number of applications for admission to various academic programmes clearly indicates that the DHWU has succeeded in sustaining its core vision of imparting quality education to the girls of this region: education for self-reliance, empowerment and definitely ‘a room of one’s own’.

The university started its noble journey in 2014 with two year postgraduate programmes in six subjects i.e. Bengali, Education, English, History, Political Science and Women’s Studies. In the subsequent years, a few more new PG courses like Geography, Physics, Mathematics (in 2015), Philosophy (in 2016), Sanskrit, Zoology, Chemistry (in 2017), and Botany (in 2021) were introduced. Simultaneously, to promote research and innovation, M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes in various subjects were started from the year 2017 and 2019 respectively. Furthermore, considering the need of the people of this region, the university, with the generous approval of the Department of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal, started offering undergraduate programmes in five subjects i.e. Bengali, Education, English, History and Political Science from the year 2022. At present, the university has 14 full-fledged departments and a number of specialized Centres.

As the Vice Chancellor of this historical women’s university, the empowerment and holistic development of young girls of the university would be my commitment. I am sure and confident that the vision and mission of the university will be taken a step further with the cooperation and support of the highly qualified faculty, efficient non-teaching staff, promising students and experienced alumni of the university. We all will be able to bring many more laurels to the university with our sincerity and hardwork. The university remains fully committed to ensure transformative impact on society through continual innovation in education, research, creativity, and entrepreneurship. The legacy set by all the outgoing Vice Chancellors i.e. Prof. Samita Sen, Prof. Anuradha Mukhopadhyay, Prof. Soma Bandyopadhyay will be carried forward in true spirit so that the university shines like the diamond forever.

Prof. Kajal De