Started in 1948 with 70 students, Vallabh Mahavidyalaya is the oldest college of Himachal Pradesh.The first Deputy Commissioner of Mandi Yuv Raj Yashodhan Singh was instrumental in convincing the first Home Minister Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel to start this college and it was befittingly named after the "Iron Man Of India".

In 1965, commerce classes were started: the evening shift was added in 1966 for Art and humanities in 1983-84, Post graduate classes in Political Science and English made it a P.G. College, with the addition of Masters degree in Economics, Commerce, Hindi and Mathematics. This year, the seventh subject of Sanskrit has been added to this list. The student intake is 35 each year, every year. In 1996, under the UGC vocational subjects scheme, a very promising field of modern science- Biotechnology was introduced with 30 seats available each year for B.Sc.I(Medicalgroup) students. Under the self-financing scheme, Bachelor of Business Administration was started the same year with 40 seats(20 subsidized+20 NRI seats). From 2001-2001 session, another self financing course- Bachelor of Computer Application has started with a similar arrangement of seats(40). Physical Education as an elective subject for Humanities group has been stated since 200-01 session.

At present, the total student strength is around 4500(both UG &PG). The break up for Arts is 2978, Commerce=492, Science=927, BCA=18. There are 78 lectures posted with another 10 employed for self financing and vocational courses on contractual terms.

Efforts are on to provide a new library for the college for which the drawing and estimates have been forwarded to the State Government and UGC for approval/sanction of Rs.63 lacs.

The College celebrated its Golden Jubilee in November 1998 in which Her Excellency Smt. Rama Devi governor H.P. , Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal Honourable Chief Minister Himachal Pradesh and a lot of old students and a proud alumni participated. Some prominent alumni of this college are : Pt.Sukh Ram (first batch) former Union Minister for telecommunications and present MLA( Mandi Sadar), Justice A.L. Vaidya Chairman H.P. Administrative Tribunal, Prof. Rama Kant(linguistics) Delhi University,Prof. Lalit Malhotra (Physicist) IIT Delhi, Dr. B.M. Abrol (Medicine) former H.O.D. ENT AIIMS Delhi , Thakur Gulab Singh Hon'ble Speaker H.P. Vidhan Sabha, Brig Khushal Thakur of Argil and many more public representatives of Mandi district, layers, educationalists doctors, engineers, officers, of the civil and armed forces who have proudly served their profession and the country but whose names can not be added due to lack of space.