Dayanand Anglo Vedic (DAV) PG College, Dehradun which was established in 1948 and was one of the premier institutions of Northern India after independence and the biggest college of Uttarakhand State having all the five faculties like Arts, Science, Commerce, Bed and law is now facing infrastructural constraints. This is due to the State Government's negligence towards higher education.

Despite limited infrastructure, presently college accommodates roughly 32,000 students even though approved seats are 12,500. Presently, this college faces shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff.

For the last many years, there has not been any recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in the college. As per approved seats, this college immediately needs at least 50 teaching staff and half of total sanctioned post of non teaching staff.

 Critics opine that the State Government's recent decisions revealed that the Government encourages private colleges for higher education rather than strengthening infrastructure in Government-run colleges. Due to shortage of infrastructure, this college has become a machine for issuing degree certificates to students rather than providing education with knowledge.

Statistics reveal that most of the students secure only pass marks after completion of their course in the college. A total of 320 students are enrolled each year in llB and very few students manage to secure degree from the college.

 Dr Devendra Bhasin, who completed his two years tenure as the college principal in October this year, said, "We have tried a lot to allow students as per approved seats on various bachelor and post graduation courses in the college, but due to the State Government's intervention, we have maintained status quo this year."

 He said, "My two years' experience as the college principal was full of challenges. Conducting students' union election and completing admission process were big challenges which I and the college staff faced in the last two years.

Somehow, I was able to establish a system ensuring transparent admission process and declaration of llB entrance test within a week in the college. As per government instruction, I will be able to enroll students on allocated seats from the next academic year."

"Soon after assuming charge, I had strictly directed the head of departments to ensure that classes are conducted regularly on time. In my two-year  tenure, I was able to break the myth that classes are not conducted in DAV (PG) College," he added.

Certain new measures were adopted for facilitating students and ensuring improvement in level of education in the college. llB entrance test was conducted through OMR answer sheet which helped the college declare this result within a week. Earlier, this result used to be declared up to three months after the exam.

 "We have made admission process transparent and all the information related to students' admission is being fed in computer. Despite enrollment of students three times more than approved seats, we were able to implement PG semester effectively in the college," he added.

 Students can secure bachelor and post graduation degree on subjects like Economics, English literature, History, Mathematics, Drawing and paintings, Indian classical music, geography, political science, Hindi, Sociology, Sanskrit, Psychology, Education Science, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Commerce, law and BEd. The college has several self-finance courses like two years MA (Mass Communication), one year course in Post graduation Diploma in Tourism and Hoteliering, one year course in Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication and three year BSc in Information Technology.

Due to limited infrastructures and enrollment of around 32, 000 students on various graduation and post graduation courses, the college has to borrow outside examination centres for certain subjects to conduct degree examinations fair in the college.

 Reacting to HNB Garhwal University vice chancellor SK Singh's disappointment with college results during last convocation, Bhasin said that the performance of students in their annual examination is not satisfactory because college gives admission to those students who secured 40 per cent marks.

 The principal said that college has a rich collection of more than 1.75 lakh of books on the courses offered by the College/University. 

The college also has a study centre of the Indira Gandhi National Open University. It is the largest in the entire Uttarakhand in terms of learners and courses. The study centre provides student support services counsellings and receiving and evaluation of assignments besides conducting term end examinations in the months of June and December every year.

 "This year, we have cancelled admissions of around 100 students who had submitted false caste certificates while the admission of 15 students was canceled because they had submitted invalid bank drafts. The admission of 17 such students was also cancelled last year," he added.

Head of department (Geography) and associate professor Dinesh Pratap said that the college has a good record in different activities sports, Rovers and Rangers, NCC and NSS and others.

 The college has the distinction of nurturing galaxy of illuminaries Shiv Sagar Ram Ghulam, ex-Prime Minister of Mauritius, lokesh Bahadur Chand, ex-Primer Minister or Nepal, HN Bahuguna, Bhakta Darshan, Mahavir Tyagi, Brahma Dutt, General BC Joshi, chief of the Army Staff, Bachchendri Pal, Everest conqueror to name a few, he added.

Associate professor and college sports secretary SV Tyagi said that the college is  well known in Uttarakhand for its achievements in sports and has produced a number of players of national levels.

 This year college had won 19 championships in various sports competitions conducted at University level.

Three tournaments including RK Shukla Memorial Basketball Tournament, Thakur Puran Chandra Memorial Volleyball Tournament and PN Dhasmana Memorial Hockey Tournament which were not conducted in the college for the last many years will start from this year.

The college was first established as a school in Meerut in 1892 in the memory of Maharshi Dayanand. However, due to paucity of funds the school could not function smoothly. The then manager of the school Jyoti Swaroop ji, an eminent lawyer decided to shift this school to Dehradun where he himself settled and began his legal profession on a high note.

Thakur Puran Singh, who was close to Jyoti Swaroop then donated his entire land that cost Rs 2,00,000 at the time, paving way for the shifting of DAV School from Meerut in 1911 at the present site.

The year 1922 saw the elevation of the school into intermediate college which later transformed into Degree College in 1946 and Post Graduate College in 1948. The college is managed by Dayanand Shiksha Sansthan, Kanpur (UP) under the able steward ship of present secretary Jagendra Swaroop.