SRM University: Churning Out The Best As Promised

With an unwavering visionary approach, SRM University is readying itself for another big splash in the private university circuit. This time around, SRM university, one of the largest self-financing private universities in the country, is set to make its presence felt at Amravati after Andhra Pradhesh CM Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone of its most talked about project. Meanwhile, the university has rolled out its online application for its famed B.Tech programme as part of its 2017 admission intake. The online test would commence from the 1st of April, 2017.

SRM is poised to set up a university campus with 17,000 students by the end of first phase in five years and 52,000 students by the end of second phase in 10 years. According to local sources, the campus would double up as a medical college as well. Last year, the government had allotted 200 acres of land to SRM University at an economical rate to boost private investment in the higher education segment in the state's planned capital city.

Its main Kattankulathur Campus in Kancheepuram near Chennai is a 250 acres affair. A Central Library with vast resources, air-conditioned auditorium that can accommodate over 4,000 people, IT and Knowledge Management system supporting over 5,000 computer systems and IT applications of the University, 32 megabytes per second Internet Connection, modern Lecture Halls & "Smart Classrooms", wireless-enabled lab and campus, language lab - specializing in English, German, Japanese, French & Chinese, are only some of the academic facilities.

Support facilities include around 40 Buses - AC & non-AC - that ply regularly between the college and the city, 15 Canteens - from fast-food to full-fledged cafeterias spread throughout the campus, retail outlets - Higginbothams book store, Airtel phone booths, Reynolds teller machines, Super Markets, Reliance Webworld with Java Cafe - all within the campus, a 3-Star SRM Hotel, and prayer halls for all major religions, are only some of the outstanding features of this 42-block masterpiece design.

Though the other campuses at Ramapuram & Vadapalani (both at Chennai), and at NCR are relatively smaller, they too are not behind in offering state-of-the-art amenities. 

With SRM University's long-term goal of achieving a pan-India presence picking up steam, the future of self-financing private institutions in India seems promising. 

Having been placed in the highest "A" category by the Ministry of Human Resource & Development, SRM University finds itself regularly featured in India's most reputed ranking lists and acquiring accreditation from official bodies. With accreditations from both the Engineering and Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET and 'A' grade by NAAC, it is only natural that SRM's engineering and IT programs are a major attraction to its prospective students.

Self-financing universities like SRM are not likely to be the first choice of students, but if they are unable to get into any mainstream college or university that offers high-quality subsidized education, institutions like SRM comes into their focus, provided they can afford it.

However, SRM students wouldn't bother much, as they hail from 48 different countries, and they very well know that their parents can afford SRM. And what you get in return for the high fees compensates the pain, if any. SRM also has extensive and modern hostel facilities, complete with not only South Indian and North Indian cuisine, but with Chinese, Thai, & Continental cuisines for catering to the tastes of its international students.

Nevertheless, nothing can be a better marker of an institution than its academic excellence and quality of faculty. This was perhaps well reflected in SRM's case when it became one amongst the 31 Indian universities that made it to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking. 

In the Times of India Engineering Institutes Ranking Survey, SRM University is ranked no.1 among the top 75 private engineering institutes in the country. It achieved a stellar no. 5 ranking in the top 150 engineering institutes list and the no. 1 position in the region-wise (South) ranking in the same survey. The university also came 7th in The India Today-Nielsen Survey in the top 10 engineering institutes category.

SRM university is also renowned for its semester abroad, dual-degree and twining program with major universities in the world. Under the semester abroad program, the students are allowed to take-up a few courses and/ or  a Major project in reputed foreign universities for ONE semester. For its dual-degree programs, SRM has partnered with some of the leading engineering and MBA colleges from across the world including, University of Dayton, University of Warwick, Missouri State University, University of New South Wales etc. 

The University of California Chancellor Prof Nicholas B Dirk spoke highly of the university in his recent special convocation address at the SRM university referring to the latter's "path-breaking research".

SRM's flagship collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the USA is a 16-month professional master's degree program - The Master of Science in Information Technology - Embedded Software Engineering (MSIT-ESE) -  that draws from the combined resources and strengths of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science (SCS), the Institute for Software Research (ISR) and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). The overarching goal of the partnership is to create leaders with the essential skills and competencies to guide the field of embedded software engineering.

Students completing the course can expect to save over 25% of costs compared to the cost of the full time programme at CMU. The future for embedded software engineers is bright commanding attractive salaries as chief strategy officer, project manager and chief technology officer and software architect, senior manager of software development, risk management officer and security analyst. The students are also eligible to apply for funding support at CMU. Upon successful completion of the degree requirements, graduates may elect to remain in the US to pursue professional opportunities.

Besides their highly acclaimed core engineering courses, the university made it into the record books in the field of space research and technology. Ever since the successful launch of SRMSAT, a nano-satellite designed and created by a group of 50 students from the SRM University under the guidance of ISRO, the university has actively embraced the development of science and astronomy. In light of this, SRM University hosted the DST INSPIRE camp for class 12 students in Chennai and neighbouring districts of the State in association with SPACE, an organisation working for space research.

Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) is an innovative programme initiated by the Department of Science and Technology to attract young talents to the excitement and study of science at an early age. About 450 students participated in the camp that saw air rocketry and comet kitchen workshops organized. 

Earlier in the year, students from SRM University won ITC's major flagship 'iTech 2016' competition, an annual technology innovation and co-creation platform aimed at promoting entrepreneurship. The team from SRM University, created a mixed reality smartphone app, 'NOMI', a short form for 'Know Me!'. It was surely history in the making as it was the first time a student team had won the prestigious hackathon beating professional teams from across the country.