Dharanidhar University in Kendujhar, Odisha, is a state university created in 2023 by upgrading the former Dharanidhar Autonomous College, an institution with a history beginning in 1957. The predecessor opened as Keonjhar Science College, initially providing intermediate science education with support from industrialist Mohd. Serajuddin. The Government of Odisha took over the college in 1962. Humanities teaching was introduced in 1967, when the institution became Keonjhar College, and honours-level undergraduate teaching expanded from 1974. During 1983–84, the college was renamed after Dharanidhar Naik, the anti-feudal revolutionary associated with Keonjhar. The institution later came under North Odisha University affiliation and received autonomous-college status from the UGC in 2004. On 11 February 2023, the Department of Higher Education, Government of Odisha issued the gazette notification upgrading the autonomous college to Dharanidhar University. The university now operates North and South campuses across approximately 71 acres and has jurisdiction over Kendujhar district. Its official profile lists 19 undergraduate departments and 20 postgraduate departments, including self-financing units, along with an affiliated-college network across the district. Academic strengths reflect the region’s social and natural setting: geology, anthropology, tribal studies, biodiversity, humanities, sciences, commerce and social sciences have particular relevance in mineral-rich and tribal-majority Kendujhar. The university also maintains research, innovation, career, scholarship, equal-opportunity and student-support structures. Admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are integrated with Odisha’s SAMS system and the state common postgraduate entrance process. Dharanidhar University therefore represents the transformation of a long-standing district college into a full university with both campus teaching and regional affiliation responsibilities. Its conversion to university status gives Kendujhar a locally governed postgraduate and research institution while retaining the predecessor college’s long-established departments and extending academic coordination to affiliated colleges across the district. The North and South campuses also support a wider mix of science, humanities, commerce and social-science departments.