Jadavpur University has been identified as one of the top universities in the country with "Potential for Excellence" by UGC. Jadavpur University has two campuses: the main campus at Jadavpur and the new campus at Salt Lake. A third campus would open at the site of the erstwhile National Instruments (CSIR India), opposite the main campus along the Raja S.C. Mullick Road. Jadavpur University is rated as a "Five Star University" in India by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council.

The university is organized into Arts, Engineering and Technology, and Science faculties.

History of Jadavpur University
The history of Jadavpur University can be traced back to India`s freedom movement (1905 -1906). British establishment had to be challenged. Education had to become a new form of resistance through which the emergent nationalist spirit could be propagated. The National Council of Education (NCE) came into being. It aim was to disseminate literary, scientific and technical education.

Monetary and scholarly contribution was given by Raja Subodh Chandra Mallik , Brajendra Kishore Roychowdhury of Gouripur as well as Rash Behari Ghosh, poet Rabindranath Tagore and Aurobindo Ghosh.

In 1910 the Society for the Promotion of Technical Education in Bengal which looked after Bengal Technical Institute was merged to NCE. Post Independence, the Government of West Bengal, with the consensus of the Govt. of India, enacted the necessary legislation to establish Jadavpur University on the 24th of December 1955.

The emblem of the university is a three-flamed lamp that is encircled by lotus petals. Knowledge is represented by the lamp. The three flames represent Intellectual Training, Cultivation of Emotions and Imagination, and Spiritual Development. Fine Arts and Culture are represented by the petals of the lotus on the periphery. The emblem was designed by Nandalal Bose who was one of the great masters at Kala Bhavan in Rabindranath Tagore`s Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan.

Jadavpur Campus
The main campus of Jadavpur University is bordered by the Raja S.C. Mullick Road, the Jadavpur Station Road, the Kolkata Suburban Rail, South Line and the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute. On 11 March 1922 the foundation stone of Aurobindo Bhavan, which is the main administrative centre of the university, was laid. The seat of engineering was shifted to the Aurobindo Bhavan in 1924. The Jadavpur campus houses most of the departments of the three faculties other than the Jadavpur University Central Library and the Blue Earth Workshop.

Alumni of Jadavpur University
Aurobindo Ghosh was the first Principal of the Bengal National College and among the teachers were luminaries like Rabindranath Tagore, Sir Gurudas Bandyopadhyay, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Surendranath Banerjee, Ramendra Sundar Tribedi, Radha Kumud Mukherjee and Benoy Kumar Sarkar. Prof. Hemchandra Das Gupta, Prof. Hiralal Roy, Prof. Satish Chandra Bhattacharyya introduced new disciplines and domains of engineering and changed the dimensions of the colonial engineering education. Some of the other notable alumni and former teachers are: Badal Sircar, Subir Raha, Moon Moon Sen, Parambrata Chatterjee, Suhel Seth, Sankar Chatterjee, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Ranjon Ghoshal, Sujan Chakraborty, Saroj Ghose, Bickram Ghosh, Kurchi Dasgupta, Anupam Roy, Onir and many more.

Faculty of Jadavpur University
The Faculty of Arts consists of twelve departments. They are Department of Bengali, Department of Comparative Literature, Department of Economics, Department of English, Department of Film Studies, Department of History, Department of International Relations, Department of Library & Information Science, Department of Philosophy Department of Physical Education, Department of Sanskrit and the Department of Sociology.

The Faculty of Engineering and Technology dates back to the erstwhile National Council of Education. There are sixteen departments which are spread in both the campus. They are Department of Architecture, Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Department of Construction Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electronics & Tele-Communication Engineering, Department of Food Technology & Bio-Chemical Engineering, Department of Instrumentation and Electronics Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Department of Power Engineering, Department of Production Engineering, Department of Printing Technology, Department of Information Technology and the Adult Continuing Education and Extension Department.

The Faculty of Science in Jadavpur University was created in 1956 with six departments which include Department of Chemistry, Department of Physics, Department of Mathematics, Department of Geological Science, Department of Instrumentation Science and the Department of Life Science and Bio-Technology.

The University has several research centres which are as follows, Centre for Ambedkar Studies ,Centre for Marxian Studies ,Centre for Refugee Studies, Centre for European Studies, Centre of Indology, Centre for Knowledge Based Systems, Centre for Human Settlement Planning, Centre for Energy-Efficient Built Environment, Centre for Microprocessor Applications for Training, Education and Research, Centre for Surface Sciences, Centre for Cognitive Science, Computer Aided Design Centre, Centre for Mobile Computing & Communication, Centre for Quality Management System, Condensed Matter Physics Research Centre, IC Design and Fabrication Centre, Laser Materials Processing Programme, Nuclear and Particle Physics Research Centre, Plasma Studies Centre and Relativity and Cosmology Research Centre.

The School of advanced studies in Jadavpur University are: School of Archaeological Dating, School of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, School of Education Technology, School of Energy Studies, School of Environmental Studies School of Industrial Pollution & Control, School of International Relations & Strategic Studies, School of Illumination Science, Engineering & Design, School of Languages, School of Laser Science & Engineering, School of Material Science & Technology, School of Media Communication & Culture, School of Bio-Sciences and Engineering, School of Cultural Texts and Records, School of Oceanographic Studies, School of Water Resource Studies, School of Women`s Studies and the School of Natural Product Studies.