Sept 06 : Lovely Professional University celebrated its 25th Foundation Day and Silver Jubilee, marking a milestone in a journey that has consistently been shaped by the ambition to make professional education more relevant to the changing needs of students, industry, and society. The celebration brought together the LPU fraternity to commemorate the institution’s journey, with the unveiling of the 25th Year Institution Symbol, recognition of faculty and staff members, and celebrations coinciding with Teachers’ Day, honouring the educators who have been central to the university’s journey.
LPU’s story began in 2001, when the International Institute of Management was established with the objective of expanding access to professional education. Starting with four management programmes under Punjab Technical University, the institution’s early years were shaped by an ambition that extended beyond simply adding programmes or students. That ambition eventually led to LPU gaining university status in 2005, creating the institutional autonomy to pursue its larger educational vision.
The scale of that transformation can also be seen in the people who became part of the journey. From an institution that began with a few hundred students and a small team of around 20 to 30 staff members, LPU has grown into a university community of more than 35,000 students and over 7,000 teaching and non-teaching staff members. The expansion reflects not just the physical growth of the institution, but the widening range of academic disciplines, opportunities, and experiences that now form part of university life.
Today, LPU has evolved into an integrated university ecosystem, bringing academic infrastructure together with facilities and services that make the campus function almost like a self-contained city. Initiatives such as UniMall, UniHotel and UniHospital, including opportunities for students from relevant disciplines to gain practical exposure through these ecosystems, reflect this approach of connecting learning with real-world environments. The university now offers 150+ programmes across disciplines and has students from more than 70 countries. Its NAAC A++ accreditation and growing presence on national and international academic platforms further reflect the evolution of the institution over the past 25 years.
Over the years, this evolution has translated into achievements across research, innovation, entrepreneurship, sports and careers. LPU faculty have featured among the world’s top 2% scientists, while its students have represented India at international sporting platforms, excelled at global robotics and innovation competitions and built ventures of their own. The university has also strengthened its position across recognised academic rankings, including its 31st position in NIRF 2025 and 5th position in India in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026.
Dr. Ashok Kumar Mittal, Founder Chancellor, LPU and Member of Parliament (Rajyasabha), said the 25-year milestone marks an important point in the university’s continuing educational vision, one that now looks beyond building the institution to enabling it to contribute meaningfully to its surroundings – Punjab, India and ultimately the world. Dr. Mittal emphasised that the future of education must increasingly move beyond classrooms and degrees towards project-based learning, AI, entrepreneurship, earning while learning and portfolios that demonstrate what students can actually do. The vision is to create an institution where ideas, research, technologies and educational models can travel beyond the campus and find relevance in the wider world. In this sense, the Edu-Revolution is envisioned not as a slogan but as an operating culture, moving LPU from success to significance and measuring its contribution by the problems it solves, the opportunities it creates and the ideas it enables others to adopt.
Celebrating the teachers day by a special Staff Appreciation Award Ceremony that honoured the dedication and service of its faculty and staff. In recognition of their contributions, the university awarded cash prize of up to ₹6.5 crore across various categories, including Teaching, Research, Administrative Services, Residential Support, Skills Development, and more, reflecting the diverse excellence that drives LPU forward. The recognition underlined that an institution’s growth is ultimately built through the people who carry its vision forward.
As LPU marks 25 years, the Silver Jubilee thus becomes both a celebration of how far the institution has come and a marker of where it intends to go next. The journey now moves from achievement to impact, from success to significance, and from building an institution to building ideas that can create change beyond it.