History
The university came into existence on 2 January 1967, after a bill was passed in the Orissa Legislative Assembly and was inaugurated by Ayodhya Nath Khosla, the then Governor of Orissa and the first Chancellor of the University.
The first Vice Chancellor, Justice Lingaraj Panigrahi was a jurist, educationist and educational administrator from Berhampur town. His tenure was brief and the task of establishing the infant university then fell to Raghunath Prasad Padhi.
Padhi appointed distinguished scholars to senior positions in the university. In Botany, the first Head of Department was Harihar Pattnaik, who later became the Vice Chancellor of the university and was also the Chairman of the Regional Railway Recruiting Board. U. N. Biswal later became Vice-Chancellor of Sambalpur University. Chemistry was the only visible research school of the university in the initial years. In History the archaeologist Krushna Chandra Panigrahi was Head of Department.
The Head of Department of Physics was S. N. Behera. Behera left for the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, where he became Director later. He rejoined Berhampur University again in 2002 as the Vice Chancellor. Members of the faculty of Political Science included J. K. Baral, who later served as the Vice Chancellor of the university and completed a full term and S. Nanda, who later became the Vice Chancellor of the newly created Fakir Mohan University, Balasore. The Head of Department of Zoology, C. C. Das, was the sectional president for Zoology in the Indian Science Congress, 1975.
The decade from 1974 to 1984 witnessed a phenomenal rise in research activities in the university. The university started with L&SW Now and opened new courses in Commerce, English, Home Science, Linguistics, Marine Sciences, Journalism and Mass Communication. In the 1980s and 1990s new departments were opened including Business Administration, Computer Science, Electronic Science and Home Science.
Several faculty members went abroad for postdoctoral research, to Japan, the USA, Switzerland and Belgium. Many faculty were awarded Commonwealth Academic Staff fellowships, while many visited the USA, UK, Europe, Canada and Japan on short term visits.
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