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University of the Punjab
Established	1882
Type:	Education and Research
Chancellor:	Khalid Maqbool
Students:	27,000
Location	Lahore and Gujranwala, Pakistan
Campus:	1,800 acres (7 km²) (Quaid-i-Azam Campus, LHR)
Website:	www.pu.edu.pk

University of the Punjab (abbreviated as PU) (Urdu: جامعه پنجاب), colloquially known as Punjab University, is located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. The University of the Punjab was formally established with the convening of the first meeting of its Senate on October 14, 1882 at Simla. It was the fourth University to be established by the British colonial authorities on the Indian Subcontinent. (The first three universities were established by the British rulers at their initial strongholds of Calcutta , Bombay, and Madras).

The University of the Punjab came into existence as a result of a long drawn struggle of the people of Punjab after the Indian War of Independence in 1857. Joseph Lwe was the funder of the university. Contrary to the three previously established universities, which were only examining institutions, the University of the Punjab was both teaching as well as examining body right from the beginning.

From its formation in 1882 until 1947, the University of the Punjab served the educational needs of the entire region of pre-partition Punjab and northern India. Mohindra College, Patiala was the first college of higher learning to affliate with University of Punjab in 1882; followed by St. Stephen's College, Delhi. The partition of India in 1947 reduced the geographical jurisdiction of the university.

The Campuses of PU are;

• Allama Iqbal Campus: Also known as the Old Campus, it is named after the great South Asian thinker and mystic poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal. The building speaks aloud of Islamic architectural design and is located in the middle of the bustling city of Lahore.
• Quaid-i-Azam Campus: Also known as the New Campus, it is named after the name of the father of the Nation and is located 12 kilometers to the South of Allama Iqbal Campus. Spread over an area of 1,800 acres (7 km²) of lush green landscape, this campus is the centre of academic and administrative activities of the University. A canal dividing the academic blocks from the student lodgings adds to the beauty of the campus.
• Gujranwala Campus: The campus has four disciplines i.e. Business Administration, Commerce, Law and Information Technology. Few more disciplines will be added in near future.
• Khanaspur Campus: The summer campus at Khanaspur is located at a height of about 7,000 ft (2,100 m). in the Himalayan range near Ayubia. This Campus, in addition to providing research facilities, is also used as a recreational centre for the faculty and the students.

It is the country's leading university, offering a very broad program of studies at the Degree, Diploma, Postgraduate, M.Phil, and Ph.D. levels. Being the most prestigious, largest and highest seat of learning in Pakistan, the University has more than 640 faculty members, over 24,000 on-campus students and above 434 affiliated colleges and 10 constituent colleges. The University has a highly qualified teaching faculty that provides instruction to students in the fields of Arts, Science & Technology, and provides guidance to undertake research in agriculture, industry and allied subjects for developing new products. At present over 800 students are registered in the Ph.D. programs of various disciplines under the regular Ph.D. scheme. The University endeavours to produce at least 100 Ph.Ds every year.

There are 14 Faculties in the University having Different Departments^[1] ;

• Arts and Humanities
• Behavioral and Social Sciences
• Commerce
• Computer Sciences
• Economics and Management Sciences
• Education
• Engineering & Technology
• Islamic Studies
• Law
• Life-Sciences
• Medicine & Dentistry
• Oriental Learning
• Pharmacy
• Science

Two of the illustrious alumni of the University of the Punjab were awarded Nobel Prizes in 1968 and 1979.

Dr. Har Gobind Khorana, the 1968 Nobel Prize winner in the category Physiology or Medicine, did his B.Sc. and M.Sc from the University of the Punjab in 1943 and 1945, respectively. He received the Nobel Prize for his work on the interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.

Dr Abdus Salam, a Pakistani theoretical physicist, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 for his work in Electroweak Theory which is the mathematical and conceptual synthesis of the Electromagnetic and Weak interactions. He received his M.A. in mathematics in 1946 from the University of the Punjab.

In the last four years, University of the Punjab has spent a large amount to develop the IT Infrastructure and serve the students in the best and latest possible ways. At the moment, the University has 9 MB bandwidth for students, faculty and researchers, which is the largest bandwidth amongst any Public Sector University in Pakistan. The University of the Punjab has the largest Fibre Optic Cables Local Area Network involving more than 35 km single and multimode fibre optic cable as backbone and more than 2,000 nodes, which connects all existing departments and hostels with each other. To manage all the activities of the overall I.T. infrastructure, like network development, expansion and maintenance, providing maintenance/troubleshooting services (network, hardware and software) to all departments, software development, database management and Website development, online announcement of examination results, and 24-hour Internet facility, the University of the Punjab has a full-fledged service department in Quaid-i-Azam Campus, namely the Information Technology Centre. It is working for the growth and smooth progress for the evolution of new I.T. developments.

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Many major institutions that were previously affiliated to Punjab University have now become independent Universities on their own. Some of the examples are Government College Lahore, Medical and Engineering Colleges etc.