Manipur University was established in 1980 at Imphal as a teaching-cum-affiliating university with territorial jurisdiction over the whole of the state of Manipur and it was upgraded to a central university in 2005. At present, the University has 108 affiliated colleges which include 2 medical colleges, 1 engineering college and 1 law college. The University is one of the leading central Universities in North Eastern region of the country with its campus spread over an area of 287 acres situated about 8 km from Imphal.

The Department of Chemistry is one of the major departments of the University since the establishment of the University with credible infrastructural facilities for advanced research in frontier areas of Chemistry and higher education offering MSc and PhD programmes. With the upgradation of the University into a central university, the department also gradually transformed itself from a pedagogical and teaching driven department into a research oriented one by cultivating and nurturing scientific talents of deserving students in terms of imparting chemical education scaling newer heights in all fronts as is evident from the quantum jump in the number of publications in peer reviewed journals of repute and the proportionate increase in the number of individual research projects sponsored by the DST, DBT, UGC, CSIR, etc. Besides, the Department has attracted good funding under the DST-FIST, UGC-SAP-DRS - I and UGC-SAP-DRS-II.