Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandra Babu Naidu and Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, M Venkaih Naidu inaugurated the first university, SRM University AP- Amaravati in the state capital region on July 15, 2017. The SRM campus at Amaravati is a multi-disciplinary varsity, offering programmes in the field of engineering, medicine, liberal arts and management.
Sharing the long-term vision of SRM, Naidu said, “I am sure within a span of five years, SRM with 10,000 students would be a top ranked world class university, with multi-stream research in the fields of engineering to management, liberal arts & humanities to law, medicine to health sciences to make Amaravati recognized by foreign countries as the best educational hub of the globe.”
In pursuit of developing this culture of excellence, SRM University AP-Amaravati has forged collaborations with universities across the world like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US and UC Berkeley College of Engineering, US and have launched new courses in design, innovation and entrepreneurship for the first time in India.
According to the University, it is working with MIT for the design and development of their curriculum through the use of MITx courses. These courses will incorporate the concepts of hybrid learning by utilising both traditional and technologically enabled teaching methods. With the UC Berkley College of Engineering, California, SRM is to enable bi-directional information exchange in the areas of engineering education. Every year 20 undergraduate students will be given an opportunity to visit UC Berkeley for a semester to study engineering at Berkeley with a defined set of concurrent enrollment and bootcamp courses. The faculty from the institute will also be provided the chance to travel to UC Berkeley to imbibe new ideas.
Dr. P Sathyanarayanan, President of SRM University, AP – Amaravati, said, “SRM is embracing a contemporary method of learning for the digital world, not seen before in India. We are working with international universities to develop a progressive curriculum. We will emphasize application oriented learning via projects and lab courses rather than monologues that are the typical feature of our classrooms.”
The faculty recruitment has followed a similar strategy with over 90 per cent of the faculty having international academic exposure and all faculty members having PhDs from foreign universities, IITs or IISc. Around 30 faculty members have been appointed across different disciplines and over 20 percent of the faculty recruited are foreign nationals.
The newly appointed Vice Chancellor of the varsity, Dr. Sandip Tiwari said, “We aim to bring a confluence of international ideas, technological innovation, and social impact, creating an ecosystem of meaningful creation originating at Amaravati and impacting the entire state, nation, and the world.”
The university will also establish Centres of Excellence in Renewable energy, Satellite technology, Internet of Things (IoTs), Blue Economy, Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning, Rolls Royce – SRM Corporate laboratory, Jal – Janak Rail energy, and CRISPR for pushing the frontiers of modern technology.
B.Tech programmes in CSE, ECE, EEE, and Mechanical Engineering are being offered from the academic year 2017-18. To attract meritorious students, 50 percent tuition waiver is being awarded to students getting an aggregate of 90 percent and above in PCM subjects in CBSE or an aggregate of 95 percent and above in PCM subjects in any state board. For the top 25 admitted students who meet this criterion would be given 100 percent tuition and hostel fee waiver. The students will also be exposed to skill development and industrial training.