Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University

The University was established on 1 August 1987 as the University of Ajmer under the University of Ajmer Act passed by the State Legislature. The name of the University was changed on 5 May 1992.

Jurisdiction of the university extends to entire State of Rajasthan. Since the day of its inception the University was entrusted with a major responsibility of conducting the examination of nearly 1.5 lakh students of colleges spread over the six divisions of the state. In 1990 teaching began in History, Political science , zoology, botany and mathematics departments. In 1991, M. Phil, teaching programmes were initiated by History, Political Science, Botany departments and later promising job oriented courses such as PG diplomas in Environmental Technology, Microbiology and lab. technology and instrumentation were started. In 1993, after shifting to new campus, departments of microbiology, foods and nutrition, applied chemistry, management studies and computer applications were created offering M. Sc., MBA, PG Diploma and Ph. D. programmes.

In a short span of seven years academic wing of University came out with enormous research work in the form of publications, Ph. D. thesis and research projects. In 1998 university started PG programme in Environmental Science, and in 2000 PG programmes in Botany Zoology, Business Economics , Commerce, Population Studies, History, Political Science and Computer Science with specialisations that did not exist other colleges in Ajmer.

At present there are 24 teaching departments viz. History, Political Science and Public Administration, Economics, Botany, Zoology, Pure and Applied Chemistry, Environmental studies, Remote Sensing and GeoInformatics, Foods and Nutrition, Microbiology, Computer Applications, Population Studies, Commerce and Management Studies, Law, Education, Physical Education, Dept. of Yogic Sciences and Human Consciousness, Enterpreneurship & Small Business Management, Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, Dept. of Library & Information Sciences and Bharat Vidhya Adhyan Sankul. There are 214 Government and Private colleges affiliated to this University. These affiliated colleges are spread over 9 districts of the state of Rajasthan. The University conducted examination of 1,35,000 students for various courses during the 2007-08 session.

The University has its own beautiful campus. It is situated near the Ghooghra village on the Pushkar bye pass, Jaipur Road (NH-8). It is seven kilometers from the city of Ajmer.