The School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada (SPA Vijayawada) is a

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

institute in

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises NT ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, specializing education and research in the field of

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

. It is one of the two School of Planning and Architecture (SPAs) established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India in 2008 as an autonomous institute and a fully Centrally Funded Technical Institution (CFTI). It forms a part of the league along with the other two SPAs: SPA Bhopal and SPA Delhi.

History

The roots of the institute are with a report made by the Institute of Town Planners, India (ITPI), on the request of the

Ministry of Human Resource Development The Ministry of Education ( MoE; formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development from 1985 to 2020) is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for the implementation of the National Policy on Education. The Ministry is further di ...

regarding the establishment of more SPAs, in addition to the SPA Delhi, established 1959. Based on this report, the decision was made to establish two schools, in

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...

and

. On 7 July 2008, SPA Vijayawada was established as an autonomous Centrally Funded Technical Institution (CFTI). In 2014, Lok Sabha passed a bill to make all the three SPAs "centre of excellence" on the pattern of IITs and IIMs, now it is a

Institute of national importance Institute of National Importance (INI) is a status that may be conferred on a premier public higher education institution in India by an act of Parliament of India, an institution which "serves as a pivotal player in developing highly skilled per ...

Campus

Initially, the school was operated out of a temporary campus in

Acharya Nagarjuna University Acharya Nagarjuna University (IAST: ''Ācārya Nāgārjuna Vișvavidyālaya'') is a state university in Namburu, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, India. History The university was established as Nagarjuna University by Act 43 of 1976 of A.P. ...

Guntur Guntur () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Guntur district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Guntur is spread across 168.49 km square and is the third-largest city in the state. It is situated to the west of the Ba ...

till 2011, before moving to its current campus. In 2011, the foundation stone of the Vijayawada campus was laid by

Daggubati Purandeswari Nandamuri Purandareswari (born 22 April 1959) is an Indian politician from the state of Andhra Pradesh. She represented the Visakhapatnam constituency of Andhra Pradesh as a Member of Parliament in the 15th Lok Sabha of India. She had previousl ...

, Minister of State for Human Resource Development. The present campus is located at Nidamanuru, on National Highway 5, close to the

Vijayawada Airport Vijayawada International Airport is an international airport serving Vijayawada and the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region in India. The airport is located at Gannavaram in Vijayawada, where National Highway 16 connecting Chennai to Kolkata pass ...

(12.4 km only). Expansion plans include building more hostels to accommodate the growing number of post graduate students, a state-of-the-art sports complex and residential quarters for

doctoral students A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

. The Government of Andhra Pradesh is in the process of allotting nearly 60 acres of land, spread over two locations in and around Vijayawada, for the development of the school. Of this, the first 7.2 acres was handed over on 22 February 2010. In January 2012, design for the new campus was adopted as part of an all-India competition and it is proposed to develop it as an eco-friendly campus with state-of-the-art facilities. The proposed campus will comprise academic, co-curricular and residential facilities.

Governance

The school is being run under supervision and guidance of a board of governors. The board comprises members from

, Department of Higher Education, Andhra Pradesh Government, two representatives of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

from the fields of architecture and planning, representative of the Institute of Town Planners,

Indian Institute of Architects The Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) is the national body of Architects in India with more than 1,24,000 members. It was established in 1917 with its headquarters in Mumbai, India. It is associated with the International Union of Architects (U ...

, University Grants Commission,

School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi (SPA New Delhi) is a higher education federal institute located in New Delhi, India specializing in education and research, and serving as the national center of excellence, in the fields of plan ...

and

All India Council for Technical Education The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is a statutory body, and a national-level council for technical education, under the Department of Higher Education. Established in November 1945 first as an advisory body and later on in ...

Academics

Academic programmes

The Institute conducts educational programmes leading to the degree of Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch.), Bachelor of Planning (B. Plan.) Master of Architecture (M. Arch.), Master of Planning (M. Plan) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.) in the following areas:

Admission

Admissions to the under graduate programme is through the

Joint Entrance Examination The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is an engineering entrance assessment conducted for admission to various engineering colleges in India. It is constituted by two different examinations: the JEE-Main and the JEE-Advanced. The Joint Seat ...

(JEE) conducted by the National Testing Agency, India. Foreign nationals, non-resident Indians (NRIs) and persons of Indian origin (PIOs) candidates are eligible to apply and should have qualifications from the foreign boards/universities recognized as equivalent by the

Association of Indian Universities Association of Indian Universities (AIU) is an organisation and association of major universities in India. It is based in Delhi. It evaluates the courses, syllabi, standards, and credits of foreign Universities pursued abroad and equates them i ...

(AIU) to be shortlisted for further evaluations.

Rankings

In 2022, SPA Vijayawada was ranked 7th in architecture by the

National Institutional Ranking Framework The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a methodology adopted by the Ministry of Education (India), Ministry of Education, Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. The Framework was approved by the ...

Student life

The present campus started with two hostels. As the intake has gradually increased, today the school has four hostels. For the first three-year students, a separate hostel has been set up that can house almost 200 — future proof for the substantial increase in intake planned. In addition to these, school has a special quarters which houses visiting students and guest faculties. Two hostels are dedicated for final-year students with over special accommodation. Dedicated mess facilities and round-the-clock canteen facilities are available between the hostels. The common rooms at the hostels have a 20" LCD TV with satellite cable, in addition to the facilities for playing indoor games. It is the scene of action for get-togethers, parties and informal discussions.

References

External links

SPA Vijayawada
{{authority control Universities and colleges in Vijayawada School of Planning and Architecture Educational institutions established in 2008 2008 establishments in Andhra Pradesh