Cluster University of Jammu is a state public university created by combining five established government colleges in Jammu under a common university framework. Its legal basis is the Srinagar and Jammu Cluster Universities Act, 2016, which received the assent of the Governor and was published in July 2016. The cluster model was developed under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan approach to strengthen existing colleges by pooling academic infrastructure, faculty expertise and programme capacity rather than building a university entirely from the ground up. The university’s constituent institutions include Government Gandhi Memorial Science College, Government M.A.M. College, Government S.P.M.R. College of Commerce, Government College for Women at Gandhi Nagar, and Government College of Education, Jammu. These colleges bring established strengths in science, humanities, commerce, women’s education and teacher education into one institutional structure. Cluster University of Jammu began its academic development with integrated and postgraduate programmes intended to create interdisciplinary pathways across the constituent campuses. The university awards its own degrees for programmes governed by the cluster and coordinates curriculum, admissions, examinations, academic regulations and research development across its colleges. Its multi-campus model allows students to access facilities and specialized departments distributed across Jammu city. The university’s creation also formed part of a broader restructuring of higher education in Jammu and Kashmir, alongside a parallel cluster university in Srinagar. The first Vice-Chancellor and statutory bodies established the governance framework needed to transform the participating colleges from affiliates of older universities into constituent units of a new university. Cluster University of Jammu therefore represents a collaborative public-university model: established colleges retain their institutional identities while operating within a shared degree, curriculum and research system designed to increase academic flexibility, resource use and interdisciplinary education. Its structure preserves established college strengths while enabling shared programmes and university-level research across separate Jammu campuses.