Arts Faculty

Known as the mother Faculty, the Faculty of Arts has a unique place in the history of Banaras Hindu University. It lays stress on the teaching of cultural values and heritage of India through subjects like Indian History, Philosophy, Culture, Archeology, Sanskrit, etc. It offers B.A. (Hons.), M.A. courses and Ph.D. programmes. Admissions are done through entrance test. It has 22 Departments that include all the major Indian and Foreign Languages both Asian and European. Keeping pace with the times, it has introduced new departments and courses, specially vocational courses in Tourism and Travel Management, Advertising and Public Relation, Archeology, Museology and Functional English. It offers professional courses like Library Science, Physical Education, Journalism and Mass Communication. The Faculty of Arts provides a wide range of subjects to its students in conjunction with Faculties of Science and Social Sciences. The Faculty has introduced two self-financing courses at the M.A. level in Anthropology and Tourism Management, and that of Asian Studies is in the offing.
There are a number of Chairs in the Faculty. The Museum of the Dept. of AIHC has precious collection of tools and pre-historic antiquities. During the last four decades the Dept. of AIHC has made acquisition of a large number of archeological pieces and ancient coins which have added new chapters in the story of human civilization. The Departments of Philosophy and AIHC have Special Assistance Programme. The Faculty has adequate infrastructural facilities. It has a 20 booth Language Laboratory, an Auditorium, a Museum and a Library.
The members of the Faculty are actively engaged in research. Research journals are brought out annually by a number of Depts. like AIHC, English, Journalism, etc. Every year Faculty Research journal is also published. The Departments of the Faculty regularly organise National and International Conferences, Seminars, Workshops. A good number of Endowment Lecture Series exist in the Faculty named after eminent scholars. Some members of the Faculty are well-known creative writers and some teachers have received national and international Honours/Awards. It has an appreciable number of publications of international standard.