Centre for Distance and Online Education, AMU Guide to Admission (2022-23)
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Introduction
Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is a premier Central University included as an
institution of ‘National Importance’ in the VII Schedule of the Constitution of India with several
faculties and maintained institutions. AMU draws students from all over the country and from
foreign countries including SAARC and the Commonwealth. Imbibing the objective tenor of the
west and preserving the oriental tradition, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the great visionary,
established the Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College on May 24, 1875 with a resolve to initiate
western education amongst Muslims and liberate their mind from outmoded patterns of
thought and behavior. At the very inception Sir Syed made a distinction between talim
(education) and tarbiyat (training); the former preparing an individual for an occupation and
the latter geared towards achieving refinement. Sir Syed thus visualized its future:
... This college may expand into a University whose sons shall go forth … to preach the gospel of
free enquiry, of large hearted toleration and pure morality”.
This vision became a reality in 1920 when this College matured to the status of Aligarh
Muslim University. Since then it has ever been expanding, diversifying and relentlessly working
towards keeping its promise to the commitment of its founder. The residential character of this
University, where most of the staff and students reside on the campus itself, contributes greatly
to the country’s multi-religious, multi-social and multi-lingual character.
There are Twelve faculties and each comprising of several Departments of Studies with a
teaching strength of 2,000 faculty members disseminating knowledge to more than twenty
eight thousand students. Amongst some of the chief institutions maintained by the university
are Zakir Husain College of Engineering & Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College &
Hospital, A.K. Tibbiya College, Institute of Ophthalmology, Ziauddin Dental College, the
University Polytechnic, the University Women’s Polytechnic, Institute of Islamic Studies, Centre
of West Asian Studies, and five high schools including Ahmadi School for the Visually
Challenged.
The pioneers of women’s education, Sheikh Abdullah and his wife Ala Bi, resisting severe
opposition, eventually succeeded in supplementing to Sir Syed’s mission by establishing the
Women’s College that admits more than 2500 girls to various undergraduate courses.