Visva Bharati University was established in 1863 by Debendranath Tagore, the father of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore. Rabindranath's school Brahmacharyasrama started functioning in 1901 wasknown as Patha-Bhavana in 1925. Visva Bharati Shantiniketan was inaugurated in 1921. Visva Bharati was declared as a central university and an institution of national importance by an act of Parliament in 1951.  It was granted the status of a unitary, teaching and residential university.