Chaudhary Charan Singh Agricultural University, popularly known
as HAU, is located in Hissar (Haryana). It was initially a campus
of Panjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab. In 1966, with
the division of Panjab and Haryana, HAU became an independent land
grant institution. Since then, HAU has become internationally known
not only for its advances in high yielding grain and cotton varieties
but also for its scenic campus.
The first Vice-Chancellor of HAU, Mr. A. L. Fletcher dedicated
many years of his life in making HAU one of the best known institutions
in Asia. His vision and efforts, as well as his proximity to the
powers that be, led to an infusion of resources for creation of
world class infrastructure, laboratories and other facilities on
the main campus.
At present, the Chaudhary Charan Singh Agricultural University
has seven colleges: College of Agriculture, College of Agricultural
Engineering, College of Animal Sciences, College of Basic Sciences,
College of Home Sciences, College of Sports and College of Veterinary
Sciences.
In fact, HAU was the first institution of higher learning to create
a separate college for sports in India. The University also has
a research and training farm of over 3,000 acres (about 1,200 hectares)
for faculty and students. The university recently annexed another
2,000 acres for its seed operations. The University has a faculty
of well over 1,200 scientists most of whom have either been educated
or trained abroad in their field of specialization.
HAU is also one of the three Indian universities to be a recipient
of the recent World Bank project on Agricultural Human Resource
Development. The overall project is approximately US$240 million.
Under the project, about 65 faculty members and deans/directors
are scheduled to visit the United States, United Kingdom and other
countries. The visitors will undergo three to four-and-a-half month
trainings at selected universities in these countries. The project
is currently under way (July 1998) and some faculty members have
already started the trainings.
This university, which was earlier known as Hissar Agricultural
University (HAU), was given its present name after Chaudhary Charan
Singh, a former Prime Minister of India. |
