Jenderal Soedirman University

In the 1960s, the highest education facilities in Banyumas residency was senior high schools, includes general and vocational schools. Meanwhile, local Banyumas society became more interested in higher education; the lack of higher education institutions in the region meant that fresh high school graduates went outside the region if they wanted to get a degree. Hampered by the high cost of living outside the region, only students from wealthy families could afford it.

This sparked the idea to establish a university in the region. The first step was the creation of agriculture faculty establishment board on February 10, 1961, followed by the establishment of Jenderal Soedirman University foundation on November 20, 1961. The faculty of agriculture was the first faculty established on September 20, 1962, under cooperation with Diponegoro University.

The Faculty of Agriculture was the precursor to establish Jenderal Soedirman University with more faculty and administration systems. On November 27, 1963, a ceremony was held in a Banyumas residential house to formally established the Jenderal Soedirman University. The official launching was conducted by the Minister of PTIP, Dr. Tojib Hadiwidjaja. This establishment was possible with aid from other educational institutions, PTIP Department (now Dikti), provincial government of Central Java and leaders of the Indonesian armed forces.

When established, Unsoed only had three faculties: Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Economics and Business, and Faculty of Biology. On its development, Unsoed established another new faculties, mainly: Faculty of Animal Husbandry (1966), Faculty of Law (1982), Faculty of Social and Political Science (1993), Postgraduate Program (1994), Faculty of Medicine (2001), Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science (2007), Faculty of Engineering (2009), Faculty of Health Sciences (2014), Faculty of Humanities (2014), and Faculty of Fishery and Marine Science (2014).

Universitas Jenderal Soedirman is the oldest and one of the only public university in the former Banyumas Residency. Thus affecting the student composition, from 25,782 of total active students in 2008, students from local Banyumas region accounted for almost 35% while the rest are from other regions in Indonesia as far as Sumatera and Sulawesi. About 5000 students enrolled at the university every year. Universitas Jenderal Soedirman is also considered as one of the most preferred university in national college entrance due to its competitiveness to enter select departments/faculties. In 2016, Unsoed ranked number 16 in Indonesia and accredited as grade-A university in 2018. In 2020, Unsoed ranked 14th as a favorite university in SBMPTN conducted by LTMPT. In 2021, Unsoed achieved rank number 17 as the best university in Indonesia according to Scimago Institutions Rankings (SIR) and successfully positioned in Top 20 of the best universities in Indonesia. Unsoed has a goal and ambitions to pursue local wisdom development and is also known as Kampus Berbasis Kearifan Lokal and committed to be a "World Class Civic University".

Evaporative drying for animal sperm storage, an innovation by Dr. Mulyoto Pangestu, lecturer at Faculty of Animal Husbandry (now lecturing at Monash University, Australia) to accommodate an affordable way to preserve farm animal sperm other than expensive nitrogen-based preservation.

Padi Gogo Aromatik Unsoed-1, a type of superior rice breed developed by joint researchers, one of them is Prof. Dr. Ir. Soewarto, M.S. (ex-rector), that yields high-quality grains and able to withstand dry agricultural areas.

Orange quality automated detector, a development conducted by Susanto Budi Sulistyo, Dr. Siswantoro, Ir. Agus Margiwiyatno, Ir. Masrukhi, Dr. Asna Mustofa, Arief Sudarmaji, Rifah Ediati, Riana Listanti, Hety Handayani Hidayat, using an affordable near-infrared AS7263 based technology to determine quality of oranges.