University of Kerala was the brainchild of the Maharaja of Travancore, Sri Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. He also served as the first Chancellor of the University. It is located at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. In 1957 University of Travancore was renamed as the University of Kerala under Kerala University Act, 1957. Post establishment of several other universities the area of the jurisdiction of the University of Kerala has been limited to Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha Districts and some parts of Pathanamthitta District.

There are sixteen faculties and forty-one departments of teaching and research in the University. The University has eighty-one affiliated colleges. Among those colleges forty five colleges are aided first grade Arts and Science Colleges, eight are unaided first grade Arts and Science Colleges, two are law Colleges, four Engineering Colleges, two Medical Colleges, seven aided Teachers Training Colleges, six unaided Teachers Training Colleges, one Ayurveda College, on Homeopathy College, two Fine Arts Colleges, one Music College and one College of Physical Education. Apart from that the University has an affiliated institute that offers 2-year full time MBA course.An Engineering College has recently been opened by the Kerala University in its Kariavattom campus. The Motto of Kerala University is "karmani Vyajyate Prajna" that has been taken from the Panchatantra

Departments of University of Kerala
The University has two main campus-Universities Campus, Kariavattom and Senate House Campus, which covers 41 departments. The main university departments are-Department of Aquatic Biology & Fisheries, Department of Arabic, Department of Archaeology, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, Department of Botany, Department of Computer Science, Department of Demography, Department of Economics, Department of Education, Institute of English, Department of Environmental Sciences, Department of Futures Studies, Department of Geology, Department of German, Department of Hindi, Department of History, Institute of Distance Education, Institute of Management in Kerala ,Department of Islamic Studies, Department of Law, Department of Library and Information Science, Department of Linguistics, Department of Malayalam, Department of Mathematics, Department of Music, Department of Optoelectronics, The Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library, Department of Philosophy, Department of Physics, Department of Political Science, Department of Psychology, Department of Russian, Department of Sanskrit, Department of Sociology, Department of Statistics, Department of Tamil, Department of Zoology and The Centre for Bioinformatics.