As early as in nineteen thirties the graduate (B. Sc.) and postgraduate (M. Sc.) programmes in Mathematics were offered in the Baroda College The department came into existence when The M.S. University of Baroda was established in 1949, Professor S.D. Manerikar, a Senior Cambridge Wrengler, was appointed as the first Head of the Department of Mathematics. In early fifties Professor P.R. Masani from Bombay, Professor S.M. Shah from Aligarh and Professor N.M. Shah from Surat were on the Board of Studies in Mathematics. These stalwarts recommended developing Mathematics at M.S. University and a course on "Modern Algebra" was introduced at the graduate level as early as in1954.
In January 1958, Professor U.N. Singh, D.Sc.(Paris), was appointed as the Professor and Head of the Department. With this advent, the department became quite active and members were encouraged to pursue doctoral program with in India and abroad. Several summer schools in Modern Mathematics were organized. In fact, the American Mathematical Monthly in an article in 1966 lauded the curriculum of our department as an ideal curriculum.
In 1973, new Department of Applied Mathematics was created in the Faculty of Technology and Engineering. Our department continued to provide excellent teaching learning training in core areas of Mathematics and have also made quality researches contributions in several journals of national and international repute in several areas including Fourier Series, Topology, Dynamical systems, Harmonic Analysis, Functional Analysis, Orthogonal Series, Special Functions, Summability theory, Relativistic Astrophysics and Fluid Dynamics. In fact, the quality researches done by several members have earned the department prestigious research prizes, several visits abroad for carrying out research projects and a prestigious UGC Career Award in Mathematics.
On the teaching side, our department was first in the Gujarat State to introduce way back in 1975, job oriented courses like Operations Research, Linear Programming, Computer Programming and Numerical Analysis at the undergraduate level and subsequently at the post graduate level under the headship of Professor V.M. Shah.
Currently, the Department handles teaching of about 1500 students, produces good quality researches, developed a good computer laboratory and has introduced various courses such as C++ Language, Computing Techniques in Mathematics, Wavelet Analysis, Fuzzy sets and its applications, Topological Dynamics and many more at M. Sc. level. There is a Departmental Library supported by National Board for Higher Mathematics (DST, DAE, GOI) consisting of advanced level text books, research monographs, journals.