Overview & History

The Department of Psychology was founded in the then Ravenshaw College by Prof. Radhanath Rath in July, 1953 with the creation of an Honours course in Odisha followed by the creation of a PG Department of Psychology in 1958 which was later shifted to Utkal University. The Department of Psychology , thus, was the first Psychology Department founded in the state of Odisha. Prior to it, Psychology was taught as a paper in Philosophy and Late Dr. Damodar Mishra and Dr. R. Rath were teaching that paper. Dr. Rath, originally a man of Philosophy got his Ph.D. from London University in experimental Psychology in 1949. The Post Graduate classes in the Department again started in November 1994. Currently the Department runs UG (Honours&Elective), P.G., M.Phil., and Ph.D. programmes . The current strength of the Department in U.G. Honours & Elective is 96 (32 each in 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd year) and 128(64 each in 1 st and 2 nd year)respectively, whereas in P.G., it is 64 (32 each in 1 st and 2 nd year). Every year the students pass out with very good results.The Department has also got its own counselling centre, ‘Sambhab’ which is functioning since 2014. The Centre offers services to deal in specific with problems such as, academic stress and anxiety; depression; interpersonal problems; aggression as reflected in episodes of violence; bullying and harassment; career related problems contributing to the psychological well being of the students, staff and faculty members of Ravenshaw University.