Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS), formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute, is a government-aided university in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India. It operates as an autonomous Christian minority institution under the 'Sam Higginbottom Educational and Charitable Society, Allahabad'.
It was established in 1910 by Sam Higginbottom as "Allahabad Agricultural Institute" to improve the economic status of the rural population. In 1942, it became the first institute in India to offer a degree in Agricultural Engineering.
In December 2016, the Uttar Pradesh State cabinet announced their decision to elevate the institution from the status of Deemed University to full-fledged University by passing the SHUATS Act operational from 29 December 2016, thus renaming it to SHUATS.
As a tribute to its founder, the institution submitted a proposal to the
Ministry of Human Resource Development
Ministry may refer to:
Government
* Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister
* Ministry (government department), a department of a government
Religion
* Christian mi ...
in 2009 to rename Allahabad Agricultural Institute as Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences. The institute was conferred deemed university status on 15 March 2000 and was certified as a Christian Minority Educational Institution in December 2005. Earlier the MHRD placed SHUATS among the elite category 'A' deemed universities on the basis of the expert committee recommendation.
The academic infrastructure of the university is organized into six Faculties—Agriculture; Engineering and Technology; Science; Theology; Management, Humanities and Social Sciences; and Health Sciences—which consist of 15 constituent schools, over 60 academic departments and four advanced research centres with emphasis on scientific, agricultural, technological education and research. The university is an alma mater to many notable
scientists
A scientist is a person who researches to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophical study of nature ...
International Association of Universities
The International Association of Universities (IAU) is a membership-led non-governmental organization working in the field of global higher education. It has more than 600 members in over 130 countries, including institutions, organizations, aff ...
. The university has been re-accredited with a
CGPA
Grading in education is the application of standardized measurements to evaluate different levels of student achievement in a course. Grades can be expressed as letters (usually A to F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), percentages, or as num ...
of 3.14 on a four-point scale and has received an 'A' grade from the
National Assessment and Accreditation Council
The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is a public autonomous body of the government of India that assesses and accredits higher education institutions (HEIs) in India. It is funded by the University Grants Commission and hea ...
Allahabad
Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...
. The institute was declared as a separate entity from the college in 1918. The Department of Animal Husbandry was the first department of the institute established in 1924. It was an important landmark in the history of dairy training in India as the admission to the first batch of Indian Diploma in Dairying (IDD) was conducted here. After a meeting in Benaras, Dr. Higginbottom and
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...
became friends and started exchanging letters on issues, such as agriculture, poverty alleviation and rural economy. Gandhiji visited the institute in 1929 and sought his advice on several occasions. In the 1930s, the institute was supported by Harvard-Yenching Institute to expand its teaching and research programme in agricultural sciences. About the same time the institute was recognized by the government for a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture science and became affiliated with the University of Allahabad. Another landmark came in 1942, when it became the pioneer institute to offer an Agricultural Engineering degree in India. In November 1947, the institute was brought under an independent "Board of Directors of the Allahabad Agricultural Institute" which was sponsored as an ecumenical body by a number of churches and missions. During this phase the institute was taken up by Arthur T. Mosher, and he is largely credited with major expansion of infrastructure and the introduction of famous "Jamuna Par Punar Yojna", the extension project of recruiting workers at the village level.
Between 1950 and 1957 Albert Mayer, an American architect, was assigned for developing the major buildings of the institute. In 1951,
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...
granted $940,000 to the institute for carrying out the research and development projects. In 1952, the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...
signed a contract with
United States Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance.
Established in 1961 and reorganized in 1998 ...
for assisting the institute in improving its educational programs. Between 1950 and 1980, John B. Chitamber led the institute successfully and made
Agricultural extension
Agricultural extension is the application of scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices through farmer education. The field of 'extension' now encompasses a wider range of communication and learning activities organized for r ...
a very well known programme of the institute. To obtain more academic freedom and to strengthen its research and extension programmes, a proposal was submitted to the Department of Higher Education,
Ministry of Human Resource Development
Ministry may refer to:
Government
* Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister
* Ministry (government department), a department of a government
Religion
* Christian mi ...
in August 1994, that the institute be granted the status of a deemed university. The institute was conferred the same on 15 March 2000 and Dr. Rajendra B. Lal was appointed as the first
vice-chancellor
A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...
of the university.
Campus
The campus is in Naini, a satellite neighbourhood of
Prayagraj
Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...
on the banks of river
Yamuna
The Yamuna (; ) is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of about on the southwestern slopes of Bandarpunch peaks of the Low ...
. The university is spread over an area of 1020 acres lush-green campus, which includes 420 acres of research farms. The campus is divided into clusters of constituent schools and separate blocks for administration. The academic area chiefly comprises the main building, departmental annexes and auditoria. The university has 12 hostels on campus, six women's, four men's and two international hostels.
The campus has an open-air theatre for cultural events. Several
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
,
hockey
''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...
and
cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
grounds; and
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
,
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
courts are built on campus. The university has a
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
,
middle school
Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school.
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...
and two inter colleges housed in independent buildings, to meet the education requirements of the children of employees and of neighbouring area. The campus houses a shopping complex, several cafeterias, restaurants, ATMs, post office, a centre of Krishi Vigyan Kendra and a branch of the
State Bank of India
State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational Public sector undertakings in India, public sector bank and financial service body headquartered in Mumbai. It is the largest bank in India with a 23% market shar ...
.
Academics
SHUATS is a multi-faculty residential academic institution. The university offers 51 undergraduate programmes, 123 postgraduate programmes, 20 diploma/certificate programmes and doctoral programmes with over 10,000 students enrolled on campus.
Research and collaboration
The university provides an ample infrastructure for interdisciplinary collaborative research and interaction between students and faculty. The major research areas include
agronomy
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...
,
mechanised agriculture
Mechanised agriculture or agricultural mechanization is the use of machinery and equipment, ranging from simple and basic hand tools to more sophisticated, motorized equipment and machinery, to perform agricultural operations. In modern times, po ...
,
food processing
Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the mak ...
,
silviculture
Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, as well as quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production.
The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests ...
,
genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of Genetic engineering techniques, technologies used to change the genet ...
,
pharmacology
Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...
,
plant pathology
Plant pathology or phytopathology is the scientific study of plant diseases caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Plant pathology involves the study of pathogen identification, disease ...
computational biology
Computational biology refers to the use of techniques in computer science, data analysis, mathematical modeling and Computer simulation, computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer sci ...
. The research activities are funded through extramural research grants from government agencies such as ICAR, DBT, NRSC, DST, MHRD, MRD, UPCAR, EU and
USDA
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...
. ''The Allahabad Farmer'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal of the university which has been publishing research articles in basic and applied aspects of agriculture technology and sciences. First published in 1925, it is perhaps one of the oldest journal dedicated to agricultural research. The university has been a collaborating partner of Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR), headquartered in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, Italy for research in
food security
Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, healthy Human food, food. The availability of food for people of any class, gender, ethnicity, or religion is another element of food protection. Simila ...
,
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
and agricultural education.
The university is currently hosting over 350 international students from
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
,
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
,
Guyana
Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...
,
Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
,
Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
, neighbouring
South Asia
South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
n and several African nations. SHUATS has signed MoUs with more than 20 international organizations for academics and research including,
Maastricht University
Maastricht University (abbreviated as UM; ) is a public university, public research university in Maastricht, Netherlands. Founded in 1976, it is the second youngest of the thirteen List of universities in the Netherlands, Dutch universities.
In ...
,
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University.
...
,
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...
,
Biola University
Biola University () is a private, nondenominational, evangelical Christian university in La Mirada, California. It was founded in 1908 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. It has over 150 programs of study in nine schools offering bachelor' ...
University of Twente
The University of Twente ( ; Abbreviation, abbr. ) is a Public university, public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands.
The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. ...
among others. The university has been in collaboration with a Thailand-based Asian Institute of Technology for academic-exchange programme since 2011. In 2015, SHUATS collaborated with
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...
and has established a nanotechnology research centre to explore the potential of green nanotechnology on agricultural economy. In 2022, the university teams up with the International Rice Research Institute for drought resistance breeding programme.
Career and placement
The university has established a Career Planning & Counselling Centre (CPCC). The CPCC invites companies for campus recruitment and placement assistance. Besides, the centre facilitates entrepreneurial and soft skills training, summer internships, career counselling and other personality development programs to the students. Some of the major recruiters of the university are
Infosys
Infosys Limited is an Indian multinational corporation, multinational technology company that offers business consulting, information technology, and outsourcing services. Founded in 1981 in Pune, the company is headquartered in Bengaluru.
On ...
Wipro
Wipro Limited () is an Indian multinational technology company based in Bengaluru. It provides information technology, consulting and business process services. It is one of India's Big Six IT services companies. Wipro's services include cloud ...
,
Amdocs
Amdocs Limited is a multinational telecommunications technology company headquartered in Chesterfield, Missouri. The company specializes in software and services for communications, media and financial services providers and digital enterprise ...
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...
John Deere
Deere & Company, Trade name, doing business as John Deere (), is an American corporation that manufactures agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains (axles, Transmission (mechanical device), transmi ...
,
TAFE
Technical and further education or simply TAFE () is the common name in Australia for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational courses. Colloquially also known ...
Mahindra & Mahindra Limited
Mahindra & Mahindra is an Indian automobile manufacturing company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It was established in 1945 as Mahindra & Mohammed and later renamed Mahindra & Mahindra. Part of the Mahindra Group, M&M is one of the lar ...
BASF
BASF SE (), an initialism of its original name , is a European Multinational corporation, multinational company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Ge ...
GlaxoSmithKline
GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a Mergers an ...
Extra-curricular activities such as sporting events, festivals, and cultural functions are organized throughout the year.
The students are divided into four houses, ''Red Eagles'', ''Blue Bulls'', ''Yellow Tigers'' and ''Pink Panthers'' for inter-house games and sports tournaments. The athletics committee is formed to govern the activities under the Department of Physical Education. A student-run
community radio
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial broadcasting, commercial and public broadcasting.
Community broadcasting, Community stations serve geographic communities and communities o ...
station, Radio Adan (90.4 MHz) brings together experts, students, farmers, and the local population, through various popular programs, focussing on agriculture, education, employment, women empowerment, child marriage, health, and culture. The academic societies and cultural clubs on the campus organize national and international competitions, symposiums, conferences and workshops. Students are encouraged to join the National Cadet Corps or enrol in National Service Scheme for overall personality development.
Alumni association
The students, alumni, and faculty members of the university are traditionally referred as " Aggies." The university has an active alumni association, governed by an executive committee with the objective of expanding and strengthening the connections between alumni and alma mater. An international alumni association ''Alagin International'' started in the year 2002, has been organizing annual meetings in various cities and also connects Aggies through social media.
Rankings
SHUATS is ranked 292 in Asian University Rankings in 2025. It is ranked 85th in India by the NIRF in the pharmacy category in 2024.