The University formerly known as Bhopal University was established in 1970 in the capital city of Madhya Pradesh. In 1988, it was rechristened as the Barkatullah Vishwavidyalaya, in the living memory of the great freedom fighter,  Prof. Barkatullah belonged to Bhopal.

The University campus, covering an area of approx. 360 acres of land, is located along Jabalpur-Jaipur National  highway(NH-12) at a distance of about 3 kms. From the Habibganj Railway Station .The University complex includes Administrative Block, Library Block, Life sciences Block, Law Block, Humanities Block, social science Block, Physics Block, Applied Geology Block, Hostel Building, Guest House, Institute of Open and Distance Education, Post office, a branch of the State Bank of India, Printing press, faculty club, Institute of Management Building, Department of Pharmacy and University Institute of Technology.

 The territorial jurisdiction of the university extends to the eight districts of Bhopal, Sehore , Vidisha ,  Raisen , Hoshangabad, Harda , Betul,  and  Rajgrah. There are more than one hundred seventy colleges affiliated to the University. There is one Engineering college two college of education, a Technical Teachers Training Institute, a Ayurvedic , Unani, Physiotherapy and homeopathic college affiliated to this University.

The University covers almost a full spectrum of higher education, offering courses in its affiliated colleges and the teaching departments in the faculties of Arts, Social Science, Science, Life Science, Home Science, Medicine, Commerce and Business Management, Law, Engineering, Education and Technical Education. The Chakravarty Rajagopalachari Institute of Management (CRIM) provides full-time  course in Business Management and theInstitute of Open and Distance Learning, the only Institute of its kind in the State, provides undergraduate and diploma courses through correspondence.

  The major emphasis of the University teaching departments is on interdisciplinary teaching and research. These teaching departments follow the annual semester system of teaching and examination, and make provision for such postgraduate courses, which are by and large, not provided a grant to establish a Women's Studies Centre in the Department of Sociology and have provided Special Assistance to departments of Microbiology and Physics under the SAP and COSIST.

 The University has established the following cells/units for specific activities in their respective fields:

•  EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION AND GUIDANCE BUREAU- In the campus for students registration.
• HOSTEL FACILITIES

Three boys and a girl's hostel are situated at the campus.  Application forms for admission to hostel are available.   The students may contact the Chief Warden boys Hostel Dr. S.K.Khatik, Department  of Commerce and Girls Hostel Warden are Dr. Mona Purohit , Dept. of Leagal Studies and research, Dr. Anshuja Tiwari Department of Commerce.

• NATIONAL  SERVICE  SCHEME  (N S S)

            The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, sponsors the N S S. It is based on voluntary social service and aims at personality development through community service. N S S volunteers undertake activities like literacy-drive, health care and immunization, environment improvement projects, tree-plantation, contribution to NSS Book-Bank, etc.  For further details contact Prof. Anand Saxena,N S S Programme Coordinator.  

• OFFICE OF THE DEAN STUDENT'S WELFARE (D S W)

          D S W is the officer responsible for helping and counseling students to facilitate them to obtain various information and interact on their behalf with various university authorities. He is the student interface of the university. He is helpful in promoting the culture, social and corporate life of student at the campus.  Presently Dr. Vinay Shrivastava is DSW.

• DEAN COLLEGE DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL 

       Dean college development council office facilitate affiliated colleges in their faculty appointment and forwarding UGC proposal. Dr.K.N.Tripathi is DCDC for the University.

• PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING CENTRE

            The Department of Psychology is running this center since 1990-91session. The center extends a variety of help to the student and others ion solving their personal problems. The Center's Director, A counselor is available for consultation every Saturday from 11 AM to 1PM.  

• MINORITY CELL

 The University has a minority coaching and guidance cell which provides coaching facilities to the students of minority communities for various competitive examinations. Dr. Tariq Zafar is Director, Minority Cell  .

• UNIVERSITY COMPUTER CENTRE

 The Center was established in 1990. It is equipped with AST Manhattan Server, IBM RS6000 Unix Server, Motorola 68030 machines and a number of intelligent nodes under LAN environment. The center is providing facility for computation and data processing to the university and teaching departments. It is Headed by Dr.Amit Dutta (In charge) 

• UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

            The University has well established library comprising of nearly 75000 books, 5703 thesis, 3000 Research magazine and 60 Sanskrit MSS. The Library subscribes 15 daily news and 12 weeklies, several monthly magazines and some journals. The library has good collection of rare reference and text books covering all major discipline Prof. In charge is Dr. Gautam Gyanendra .

• UNIVERSITY PRESS

            The press was established in the year 1981 with financial assistance of the State Govt. and UGC. The Press is functioning as a service department of the university. 

• UNIVERSITY SCIENCE  INSTRUMENTATION  CENTRE   (USIC)

            The university science Instrument Centre has been established in the university to provide central facility of major equipment and service for maintenance of equipment in the University. It has a well-equipped mechanical workshop. Glass blowing and electronics workshop are being established in the premises. The facilities are available to the nearby Institutions. Training in instrumentation to teachers, research students technicians etc. is proposed to be given in near future . Dr. Neeraj Gour is Head of USIC  

•   CENTRE FOR BUDDHIST STUDIES

 The ardent need of the hour is "Peace" - to live and let live". The way to achieve it lies in adopting the sublime principles of Buddhism which stand for the welfare of many and for the happiness of many.

Looking in to the importance of Buddhism, a Buddhist centre in the University  has been established. The centre has  successfully organised a two-days National Seminar on Buddhism on 29-30 March,2006. The centre is determined to achieve the following objectives:

   Centre for Buddhist Studies is being run under the supervision of Dr. K. B. Panda, Professor and Head, Department   of Comparative Language and Culture.

• Rajiv Gandhi Chair- The prestigious chair was established in the year 2006 under the guidelines of UGC and MHRD. Prof .S.N.Choudhary is the Director of the chair.
• Equal opportunity cell- The cell was established by the University to address the issues related to SC,ST,OBC  Minority, and Physically Challenged on a continual basis.
• Women Studies Department

 Women’s Studies Department, Barkatullah University, Bhopal deals with the teaching, training, research, documentation on women related issues with the aim of women empowerment. It is the first Department of Women’s Studies in the whole Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh State. WSD has been established by the University Grants Commission in the University to promote teaching, training, research, Dissemination, Publication, Extension activities, Documentation, Gender sensitization, Advocacy and networking at the local and national level on women related issues with the aim of Women Empowerment on various perspectives of women ensuring further mainstreaming in the process of Women’s Empowerment and Development. Strong focus of the department is on empowerment of tribal and marginalized women.