History
MH was founded in 1948 by the then vice-chancellor, Sir Maurice Gwyer Its foundation stone was laid by Lady Edwina Mountbatten on March 7 in the same year. Located on the university campus, Miranda House is built of red bricks. Its original design was planned by the architect Walter Sykes George. The college shares an architectural affinity with other colonial educational institutions of the country. In the past six decades, as the college grew, several buildings were added. It is now declared an heritage building and work is on to preserve it. The college celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in 2007-08. Alumni and students of this college are popularly known as Mirandians.
More than half a century ago Miranda House came into existence as a campus college for women. Since then there has been an ideological shift in the role that young women are called upon to play. Presiding over the Silver Jubilee Celebration of the college in 1973, prime minister Indira Gandhi remarked that Miranda House girls believed that all the beauty and the brains of the capital came from the college and commented "it is partly true, though not entirely so".
Miranda House started with a student strength of 33 in July 1948, which rose to 105 by September the same year. It was 2,090 in 1997–98. The strength of the academic staff increased from six in 1948 to 120 (permanent) in 1997–98 and that of non-academic staff from 11 in 1948 (five in the hostel and six in the college) to 120 in 1997–98. There were only 43 students in the hostel in 1948, of whom seven belonged to other colleges of the University of Delhi. The present strength of the hostel is 250.
At the time of its founding, Miranda House had six departments; as of 2012 there were eighteen. Science teaching was conducted in the university but in 1963–64, B.Sc. General and in 1971, B.Sc. Honours teaching work started in the college. Many new subjects have been introduced in the humanities and social sciences since then.
Miranda House provides liberal education in social sciences, humanities and the basic sciences. Academic life is rigorous. The college's infrastructure includes teaching laboratories and general facilities. Miranda House ranked twelfth, with a score of 56%, for science colleges in India in 2010.
As of 2012 Miranda House had more than 3,000 students.
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