The beginnings of the Department of English at S.S.J. Campus, Almora and D.S.B. Campus, Nainital can be traced back to 1949 and 1951 respectively, when they came into being as Degree Colleges affiliated to Agra University. With the establishment of Kumaun University in 1973, they became Constituent Colleges and were elevated to the status of University Campuses in 1994.The Department offers English Language courses to UG students from across the faculties and specialised courses in English literature to UG and PG students along with research programmes in English Studies. The UG and PG courses have been designed in accordance with the guidelines of the UGC model syllabus and the focus has been to place English Studies in the Indian context. In this regard, an elective paper on Indian Literatures in Translation has been introduced at the PG level. At the same time, canonical texts of Indian writers like Kabir, Ghalib, Gandhi and others have also been included in different papers at the PG level. Translated world classics have also been made part of the PG syllabus. The focus of recent research is also on Post-Colonial Literatures. The University has already implemented the semester system at the PG and UG level from the academic session 2011-12 and 2016-17 respectively. The Department has introduced Certificate and Diploma Courses (Add-On-Courses) in Japanese and German languages from the academic session 2019-20 and plans to introduce Certificate and Diploma Courses in Spanish, Chinese and French languages in the next academic session. Admissions to Ph. D are done through an entrance test and the candidates who qualify the test are required to undergo a six months course work before beginning their thesis work.

There are about 1130 students enrolled in UG and PG courses at S.S.J. Campus, Almora and about 560 students at D.S.B. Campus, Nainital. The libraries of both the Campuses are well stocked to cater to the needs of the UG and PG students as well as the research scholars to a certain extent. There is also a central library situated in the University Administrative Block, Nainital which also has a sizeable collection of books on the subject. The Department also has audio-visual equipments as well as computer systems.

In addition to lectures, seminars / discussions are also organized for students periodically. The Department at Almora plans to introduce certificate and diploma courses in Translation and the Department at Nainital is planning to introduce courses in ELT. The Department caters to the requirement of English teachers at both the school and college level in the entire Kumaun region as well as elsewhere. The teachers of the Department are actively engaged in research and publish research papers / books, as well as participate in seminars, conferences and workshops regularly.