Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) Deemed to be University in Bhubaneswar came into existence on July 17, 2007 when the HRD Ministry conferred on it the status of a Deemed to be University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956.

SOA’s 127 acre fully wi-fi campuses have a total built up area of nearly 4.5 lakh square meters. The multi-campus infrastructure of SOA is home to more than 12,000 students, including from six other countries. SOA offers 24 Undergraduate and 71 Postgraduate, 10 Post Masters, Ph D and Post-Doctoral programs.

SOA is being continuously counted among the top 25 universities in the country by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Ministry of HRD, for five consecutive years now. Ranked 20th in the country this year, it has also remained the top institution in the university category in Odisha for the fifth consecutive year obtaining a score of 53.10 this year. NAAC, which has termed SOA as socially inclusive, has re-accredited it with the highest grade in recognition of its quality academic activities. Programs of SOA’s faculty of engineering and technology have been accredited by the prestigious Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), an internationally reputed US-based accreditation agency.

SOA’s focus being on research, it has set up 13 research centres which have been working in 22 identified thrust areas. Some of the ongoing research work is supported by grants sanctioned by several external agencies. The university has 4839 Scopus indexed publications to its credit so far with H-index of 54. Researchers at SOA have so far applied for 99 patents of which 72 have been published and patents granted in five cases. Four of these patents related to the Centre for Nano Sciences and Nano Technology.

‘Jaago’, an initiative of the university with students at the forefront, has been working among slum children taking care of their education, nutrition, and hygiene.

The core belief at SOA has been that a centre of higher learning must ignite the desire in the student to go through the process of learning not to get a job but illuminate the society with his or her learning.

Sources:

http://www.prameyanews.com/siksha-o-anusandhan-a-mission-to-create-global-citizens/

https://www.soa.ac.in/