page_title: Miranda House
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Miranda House / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Rabindranath Tagore With Sir Maurice Gwyer and Dr. S. Radhakrishnan at Sinha Sadan after the Oxford University Convocation on 7 August 1940. Sir Maurice Gwyer, Founder of Miranda House, University of Delhi.
context_page_description: Miranda House is a constituent college for women at the University of Delhi in India. Established in 1948, it offers degrees in the sciences and liberal arts.
context_section_description: Miranda House was founded in 1948 by the university vice-chancellor, Sir Maurice Gwyer.  In a magazine published by him in 1952, he wrote three reasons as to why the college was called Miranda. His favorite actress was Carmen Miranda, his daughter's name was Miranda, and a character named Miranda in William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest was, according to him, a perfect example of what a lady should be. Its foundation stone was laid by Lady Edwina Mountbatten on 7 March in the same year. Miranda House is built of red bricks on the university campus. Its original design was planned by the architect Walter Sykes George and is architecturally similar to other educational institutions in India founded in the colonial era. As the college grew, several buildings were added.
  Alumni and students of this college are known as Mirandians.
  Miranda House started with 33 students in July 1948, which rose to 105 by September the same year. It was 2,090 in 1997–98. The academic staff increased from six in 1948 to 120 (permanent) in 1997–98 and that of non-academic staff from 11 in 1948 (five in the hostel and six in the college) to 120 in 1997–98. The college accommodation (hostel) housed 43 students in 1948, of whom seven were enrolled at other colleges of the University of Delhi. There are now 250 students in the hostel.
  At the time of its founding, Miranda House had six departments; as of 2012 there were eighteen. Miranda House pioneered science education for women at the University of Delhi when it started its B.Sc. Honours (Botany) course in 1948. Science teaching was conducted in the university and in 1963–64, B.Sc. General and in 1971, B.Sc. Honours teaching work started in the college. Many new subjects have been introduced in the humanities and social sciences since then.
  Miranda House provides liberal education in social sciences, humanities and the basic sciences. The college's infrastructure includes teaching laboratories and general facilities.As of 2012 Miranda House has more than 3,000 students.
caption: Sir Maurice Gwyer (extreme right), founder of Miranda House, University of Delhi
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