Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (or Amrita University) is a private deemed university based in Coimbatore, India. It currently has 7 campuses with 16 constituent schools across the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka with the headquarters at Ettimadai, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. It offers a total of 207 undergraduate, postgraduate, integrated-degree, dual-degree, doctoral programs in engineering and technology, medicine, business, arts and culture, sciences, biotechnology, agricultural sciences, allied health sciences, Ayurveda, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, nano-sciences, commerce, humanities and social sciences, law, literature, spiritual studies, philosophy, education, sustainable development, mass communication and social work.
History
The university was founded with the opening of Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore in 1994 by Mata Amritanandamayi Devi and is managed by her international humanitarian organisation Mata Amritanandamayi Math. In 2003, it became one of the youngest institutes to be accredited as a deemed to be university by the UGC. In 2002, campuses in Amritapuri and Bangalore were started.
Campuses
The university has six campuses, with 15 constituent schools in rural and urban sites in four south Indian states – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka. The first to be established was the Coimbatore campus in 1994, with the opening of Amrita School of Engineering at Ettimadai, a village about 20 km east of Coimbatore. Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) in Edapally, Kochi was inaugurated on 17 May 1998 by the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Later in 2002, two campuses were opened, one urban campus at Bengaluru, and one rural campus in Amritapuri village, which also hosts the headquarters of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math that runs the university. In 2019, an engineering campus was opened at Chennai. Currently, two new healthcare campuses are being constructed at Faridabad, Haryana and Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh.
Amrita Schools
Amrita Schools of Arts, Sciences and Humanities
The schools of Arts and Sciences offer Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA), Master of Computer Applications (MCA) programs and are located at Amritapuri, Kochi, Mysore. Bachelor of Science in Visual Media (B.Sc.), Integrated M.Sc. in Visual Communication, Master of Science in Visual Communication (M.Sc.), Master of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication and Master of Arts in Visual Media and Communication (M.A) programs are currently offered at Mysore campus.
Amrita Schools of Business
The school of Business was started in 1996 in Coimbatore campus and currently 4 campuses - Coimbatore, Bangalore, Kochi, Amritapuri (Kollam). The school offers AACSB accredited residential two-year MBA degree program. In addition, it offers a dual degree program leading to an MS in information technology and MBA in collaboration with State University of New York at Buffalo, for working professionals at the Bangalore campus.
Amrita School of Biotechnology
The school was started in September 2004 and offers B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Biotechnology, B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Microbiology, and M.Sc. in Bioinformatics, as well as Ph.D. degree programs. Its research spans a wide spectrum including Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Cancer Biology, Cell-line Engineering, Wound Healing, Computational Neuroscience, Neurophysiology, Phytochemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Proteomics, RNAi, Analytical Chemistry, Snake Venoms, Sanitation Biotechnology.
The Amrita School of Biotechnology is approved as a Center of Relevance and Excellence (CORE) in Biomedical Technology under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, TIFAC Mission REACH programs. The School of Biotechnology was selected by the DBT-BIRAC (Government of India) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as one of the top six innovators in India to develop next generation sanitation solutions using bacteriophages and other biocontrol agents.
Amrita School of Communication
The school offers B.A. and M.A. degree programs in Communication for careers in journalism, new media/animation, and short film making and advertising, based on the UNESCO model curriculum.