Goa University

Goa University was established under the Goa University Act of 1984 (Act No. 7 of 1984) and commenced operations on 1 June 1985. The university provides higher education in the Indian state of Goa.

After the annexation of Goa by India in December 1961, the University of Bombay, (now Mumbai) offered affiliation through its Centre of Post-Graduate Instruction and Research (located in the state capital, Panaji, or Panjim) to the first colleges that were instituted in Goa in June 1962. Since 1985 Goa University offers graduate and post-graduate studies and research programmes. It is currently (2014) accredited to the NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) in India with a rating of four stars. It is located on the Taleigao Plateau.

Educational institutions in colonial Goa

Although the Portuguese colonial powers set up several seminaries and a number of parish schools after their arrival in Goa in the 16th century, these offered mainly religious and elementary education, respectively. Medical education started in the early 18th century, in the Royal Hospital in the old City of Goa, and the first regular medical course was offered in 1801 at the Royal and Military Hospital. In the 1950s attempts were made by the government to ensure compulsory enrolment in primary schools (Varde 83). Private schools also thrived, including in Marathi and English mediums. Some of these taught up to high school and prepared the students to appear for Secondary School Certificate Examination (Matric/SSCE) of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary Education, Pune.

Goa

Goa ⁱ/ˈɡoʊ.ə/ (English) is currently the Republic of India's smallest state by area post the 1974/75 UN treaty and presently has the fourth smallest population. Famously known as Rome of the East it was the capital of historical Portuguese eastern empire (1510 to 1910) followed by an Overseas province status of the Portuguese Republic (1910 to 1974/75). Located in the South Western part of the Indian subcontinent as numerous islands and provinces in the region generally known as the Konkan strip, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its entire western coast. Goa is India's richest state with a GDP per capita two and a half times that of the country as a whole. It was ranked the best placed state by the Eleventh Finance Commission for its infrastructure and ranked on top for the best quality of life in India by the National Commission on Population based on the 12 Indicators. A native from Goa is called and identified as a Goan and depending on ancestry and descent can be full Portuguese citizens or can be a Goan with full Indian citizenship.

University

A university (Latin: universitas, "a whole") is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which grants academic degrees in various subjects and typically provides undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word "university" is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars."

History

Definition

The original Latin word "universitas" refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc." At the time of the emergence of urban town life and medieval guilds, specialised "associations of students and teachers with collective legal rights usually guaranteed by charters issued by princes, prelates, or the towns in which they were located" came to be denominated by this general term. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members.

In modern usage the word has come to mean "An institution of higher education offering tuition in mainly non-vocational subjects and typically having the power to confer degrees," with the earlier emphasis on its corporate organization considered as applying historically to Medieval universities.