The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, formerly Baroda College, is a public university in the city of Vadodara, in Gujarat state, India. Originally established as a college in 1881, it became a university in 1949 after the independence of the country. It was later renamed after its benefactor Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the former ruler of Baroda State. The university offers undergraduate, post-graduate, and doctoral programs. It houses 89 departments spread over 6 campuses (2 rural and 4 urban) covering 275 acres of land.

History
The university has its origins in the Baroda College, established in 1881 by Baroda State. The main building, which houses the Faculty of Arts, was designed by Robert Fellowes Chisholm in Indo-Saracenic architecture style, in a fusion of Indian and Byzantine arches and domes in brick and polychrome stone. The main dome on the convocation hall was modelled after the great dome of the Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur. Pratap Singh Gaekwad of Baroda (1908–1968) (the last Maharaja of the erstwhile Baroda State) founded the university in 1949 on the wishes of his grandfather, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III (1863–1939), and settled the "Sir Sayajirao Diamond Jubilee and Memorial Trust" which exists to date, catering to the education and other needs of the people of the former Baroda State.

Departments

• Department of Archaeology and Ancient History
• Department of Anthropology
• Department of Arabic
• Department of Canadian Studies
• Department of Economics
• Department of English (The oldest in Gujarat)
• Department of French
• Department of Geography
• Department of German
• Department of Gujarati
• Department of Hindi
• Department of History
• Department of International Relation
• Department of Library & Information Science
• Department of Linguistics
• Department of Marathi
• Department of Persian
• Department of Philosophy
• Department of Political Science
• Department of Pali
• Department of Prakrit
• Department of Russian
• Department of Sanskrit
• Department of Sindhi
• Department of Sociology
• Department of Traditional Sanskrit Studies
• Department of Urdu
• Department of Management Studies
• Department of Education and Psychology

Library
The Hansa Mehta Library was established in 1950.

Oriental Institute
The institute was established in Baroda on 1 September 1927. It operated from the Central Library before it was shifted to a separate building near the palace. It is known for the seven volumes of the critical edition of Ramayana that it published between 1951 and 1975, a part of a 25-year project sponsored by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The text was later the reference source for Ramayan, the popular TV series by Ramanand Sagar that originally ran in 1987–88. One of the oldest manuscripts preserved at the institute is Ayodhya Mahatmya, written by Harishankar in 1656 AD, part of the collection of over 10,000 manuscripts of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, who first conceptualized the institute in 1893, inspired by the opening of the Oriental Research Institute Mysore in 1891, established by then Maharaja of Mysore Chamaraja Wodeyar, and a close friend.The Oriental Institute organizes seminars and conferences for research in Oriental studies.

Student life
The university offers NCC and NSS on campus.

(Source:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharaja_Sayajirao_University_of_Baroda)