Diamond Harbour Women’s University is a public state university in South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, established specifically to expand higher-education and research opportunities for women. Its statutory foundation is the Diamond Harbour Women’s University Act, 2012, which came into effect with enactment on 28 January 2013. The institution was conceived in response to the need for a women-focused university serving the Diamond Harbour region and neighbouring districts. Academic operations began in the 2014–15 session with two-year, four-semester postgraduate programmes in Bengali, English, History, Political Science, Education and Women’s Studies. Science teaching was added in 2015–16, broadening the university into mathematics, geography, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology and related disciplines. The first M.A. graduates completed their degrees in 2016, followed by the first M.Sc. graduates in 2017. The university held its first convocation in February 2018 and a second convocation in March 2019. Research education then expanded through M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes in several arts and science departments. In 2022, the West Bengal Higher Education Department permitted the university to introduce undergraduate programmes in Bengali, English, History, Political Science and Education, marking a major change from its original postgraduate-only model. The university’s academic mission combines disciplinary study with a wider commitment to women’s access, autonomy, livelihood and security. Its location near Diamond Harbour allows it to serve students from southern West Bengal while also developing research connected with gender, society, environment and regional history. Diamond Harbour Women’s University is therefore distinctive as a women-only public university that progressed from six postgraduate arts programmes to a broader institution offering arts, science, research and undergraduate education. The university’s progression from postgraduate humanities to science, doctoral research and undergraduate teaching reflects a deliberate expansion of women’s access to advanced study within South 24 Parganas and surrounding parts of southern West Bengal.