The need of the region comprising South Gujarat to have a separate university was voiced initially by educationists such as Atisukhshankar Trivedi who through public speeches and writings created awareness and gained support for this demand. This was immediately taken up and strongly supported by the Education societies of Surat and Navsari which already supported and managed colleges in various disciplines imparting both Undergraduate and Postgraduate education. Moreover, these were some of the most highly reputed academic centres under both the University of Bombay and the Gujarat University.

After Veer Narmad South Gujarat University Act was passed by the end of 1965, in August 1966 the government of Gujarat appointed Shri Chandravadan Chunilal Shah as the first Vice-Chancellor and Shri Priyadatt Motiram Joshi as the first Registrar of the University. Thus the University was incoporated during the Third five-year Plan period.

A temporary office of the University started functioning on the premise of the Sarvajanik College of Education from August 18, 1966 which was moved to the Nonresidential Students’ Recreation Hall of Sir K. P. Commerece College in December 1966. Around the same time, through the appointment of one office superitendent, one assistant accountant and one junior stenographer the office became fully functional. In July 1967 the office moved to the Khandwala Bungalow in Athwa Lines and it was here that the first academic departments of the Unievrsity became operational during the Fourth Plan period.

The construction of buildings in the planned university campus started during the Fourth Plane period. The administrative office of the university and the Central library moved to the campus in 1976 while the teaching departments moved to the campus during the period 1977 to 1981.
These details are retrieved from www.sgu.ernet.in