Visva Bharati at Shantiniketan was founded by Rabindranath Tagore, the great son of India who was famous internationally for his literary and educational work. Visva Bharati University was established with the motto of the upliftment of the Indian village community and the tribals. The university is unique when it comes to way of teaching. The students are tutored in open air, under the trees of the Ashrama.
Educational Streams
Visva Bharati offers a complete scheme of education starting from nursery and ending with doctoral research. The University has established several institutes and colleges under its management for the purpose of imparting education at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level.
Institute of Humanities also known as Vidya Bhavana (offers three years Honours courses in Santali, Japanese, Tibetan and Persian under the Vidya Bhavana), the Institute of Sciences is known as Shiksha Bhavana, the Institute of Agricultural Sciences happens to be the Palli Shiksha Bhavana and the Institute of Education is the Binay Bhavana. However, the University is very famous for its Institute of Fine Arts or Kala Bhavana.
Institute of Humanities also known as Vidya Bhavana (offers three years Honours courses in Santali, Japanese, Tibetan and Persian under the Vidya Bhavana), the Institute of Sciences is known as Shiksha Bhavana, the Institute of Agricultural Sciences happens to be the Palli Shiksha Bhavana and the Institute of Education is the Binay Bhavana. However, the University is very famous for its Institute of Fine Arts or Kala Bhavana.
The University conducts an all-India Admission Test, Visva-Bharati Common Admission Test (VBCAT), for admission in Honours degree (graduation level). For admission to PhD course the candidate must have scored a minimum of 50% marks in aggregate in Master's Degree and appeared in test conducted by UGC/CSIR/ICAR/IIT for award of research fellowships.
Facilities
The University houses more than 40 hostels that accommodate all students pursuing studies there. There are as many as 15 kitchens at Santiniketan and Sriniketan including 5 canteens in the campus. Besides this the University houses several guest houses that are open to the guests of the University, relatives of the students and visitors. The University also offers a number of merit scholarships for the deserving and needy students. Apart from basic amenities the University offers selected number of part-time positions of student assistants in library, and book bank. The university also lays stress on physical education.
History
In the year 1921, Visva Bharati evolved from Brahma Vidyalaya founded by Rabindranath Tagore in 1901. Visva Bharati was declared as a central university and an institution of national importance by an act of Parliament in May 1951.
Faculties/Departments:
- Department of A.I. H. C. & A
- Department of Arabic, Persian, Urdu & Islamic Studies
- Department of Assamese
- Department of Bengali
- Department of Chinese Language & Culture
- Department of Economics & Politics
- Department of Education
- Department of English & OMEL
- Department of Geography
- Department of Hindi
- Department of History
- Department of Indo-Tibetan Studies
- Department of Japanese
- Department of Oriya
- Department of Philosophy & Religion
- Department of Sanskrit, Pali & Prakrit
- Department of Santali
- Department of Tamil
- Department of Centre for Journalism & Mass Communication
Visva-Bharati Santiniketan, District Birbhum, West Bengal, has issued the notification for admission into various UG & PG programmes, to be offered in the ensuing academic session 2012-13. 
