Jagannath Barooah University in Jorhat, Assam is a state university created by upgrading the historic Jagannath Barooah College, one of Upper Assam’s oldest institutions of higher education. The university was established through the Jagannath Barooah University Act, 2023, which provided for a teaching, research-oriented, affiliating and partially residential university and also envisaged open and distance learning functions. Its academic heritage, however, begins in 1930 when the institution opened with a small group of students under the name Upper Assam College before becoming closely identified with Jagannath Barooah. Krishna Kanta Handique, the renowned scholar and Indologist, served as the founder principal. The college initially offered Intermediate Arts and obtained formal affiliation from the University of Calcutta in 1931. Its curriculum expanded steadily: Intermediate Commerce began in 1939, the B.A. in 1941, B.Com. in 1944, Intermediate Science in 1949–50 and B.Sc. in 1952–53. The institution was affiliated with Calcutta University until 1948 and subsequently with Gauhati University during an important period of expansion. Over decades, it developed departments across humanities, social sciences, sciences and commerce and later introduced postgraduate teaching in selected subjects. The transition to Jagannath Barooah University gives this long-standing college a wider mandate for research, postgraduate education, affiliation and academic innovation while retaining its historical base in Jorhat. Its location in Upper Assam makes it well placed for scholarship connected with the region’s language, history, culture, biodiversity, economy and social change. The university’s identity therefore joins two phases: nearly a century of college-level educational service and a new university framework intended to support advanced teaching, research, interdisciplinary study and broader regional access to higher education. As the new university framework matures, it can build on the college’s deep alumni, departmental and community connections while expanding research opportunities and interdisciplinary programmes for Upper Assam.