Dhanamanjuri University is a state cluster university in Imphal, Manipur, created under the Dhanamanjuri University Act, 2017. The legislation came into force on 6 April 2018 through a notification of the Government of Manipur’s Department of Higher and Technical Education. The university was established under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan framework, which encouraged the conversion of groups of geographically connected colleges into cluster universities. DMU brings together five historic institutions: Dhanamanjuri College of Science, Dhanamanjuri College of Arts, Dhanamanjuri College of Commerce, Ghanapriya Women’s College and Lairenmayum Sheibyashachi Law College. These colleges occupy adjoining or nearby sites in central Imphal and collectively provide the university’s academic base. The university is named in recognition of Maharani Dhanamanjuri’s contribution to higher education in Manipur, including the development of Dhanamanjuri College. Its first academic session in 2018–19 enrolled undergraduate students through the constituent colleges, after which postgraduate programmes were progressively organized. The cluster structure allows DMU to offer a broad range of subjects without abandoning the identities and disciplinary strengths of the original colleges. Science, arts, commerce, law, physical education and social-science teaching therefore sit within one university framework. The university coordinates curricula, admissions, examinations, postgraduate education and research while the constituent colleges continue to provide much of the teaching infrastructure. Its location in the heart of Imphal gives it a significant role in widening access to advanced study within Manipur. Dhanamanjuri University’s institutional identity is distinctive because it combines the legacy of long-established colleges with a relatively new state-university governance system designed to strengthen postgraduate education, research and academic coordination. The cluster model also places science laboratories, arts and commerce departments, a women’s college and a law college within one statutory university, creating opportunities for shared postgraduate teaching, research supervision and academic resources. This arrangement preserves each constituent college’s disciplinary legacy.