School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada

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 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 and Vijayawada. 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 college of national importance.

Campus

Initially, the school was operated out of a temporary campus in Acharya Nagarjuna University in Guntur till 2011, before moving to its current campus. In 2011, the foundation stone of the Vijayawada campus was laid by Daggubati Purandeswari, Minister of State for Human Resource Development. The present campus is located at Nidamanuru, on National Highway 5, close to the Vijayawada Airport (12.4 km only).^[3] 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.

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 February 22, 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 Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, Andhra Pradesh Government, two representatives of the Government of India from the fields of architecture and planning, representative of the Institute of Town Planners, Indian Institute of Architects, University Grants Commission, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi and All India Council for Technical Education.^[5]

Academics

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

Degree	Specialization
Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch)	Architectural design and Building construction.
Bachelor of Planning (B.Plng)	Settlement design, developmental economics, photogrammtery and Remote Sensing, rural development, utilities and services planning, project planning, operations research, real estate valuation, disaster management, transport planning, housing, infrastructure planning, land use zoning and environmental monitoring.
Master of Architecture (M. Arch)	Sustainable Architecture.
Master of Planning (M. Plng)	Environmental Planning and Management
Master of Planning (M. Plan)	Urban and Regional Planning
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)	All Architecture and Planning disciplines, interdisciplinary areas, humanities and social sciences.

Admission

Admissions to the under graduate programme is through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education, 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 (AIU) to be shortlisted for further evaluations.

Student life

Hostels

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 and 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.

Library

The SPA Library holds knowledge resources predominantly related to Architecture and Planning. The entire library collection including the CD-ROM and online databases are made available through the institute’s network. Users can access the online databases, video library and find out the real-time availability of library materials from their own computer terminals. The library offers a range of information services set to the highest professional standards.

The library resource includes over 5000 books in the areas of architecture and spatial planning, 125 journals (50 foreign and 75 Indian) specific to the academic and research needs of the academic community and over 1000 selective e-journals in full-text.

Students Council

The activities of the students are coordinated by the Students Council (SC), an elected body of student representatives. The SC follows a Constitution document in its activities and initiatives. SC currently comprises eight committees, nine activity clubs, nine interest clubs, an editorial team of a quarterly publication, and coordinators of national-level events.

The student committees are as follows:

• Academic Affairs Committee
• Alumni Committee
• Cultural Committee
• Hostel & Infrastructure Committee
• Literary Committee
• Media & Public Relations Committee
• Mess Committee
• Sports Committee
• Gaming Committee

The secretary of each committee along with the SC president, vice-president and the general secretary form the 11-member SC Executive Council which advises the institute administration.