Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy

The Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy, also known as SASTRA, is a private and deemed university in the town of Thirumalaisamudram, Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. It offers Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Doctoral courses in Engineering, Science, Education, Management, Law and the Arts.

Established in 1984, SASTRA is one of India's premier institutions which has gained a reputation for academic excellence, research, and industry collaboration. It is recognized as a Deemed-to-be University by the Government of India and holds a NAAC A accreditation, the highest possible grade.

History

SASTRA Deemed University started in 1984 as Shanmugha Engineering College by S Ramchandra Iyer, affiliated to the Bharathidasan University, Trichy. In 2001 it was renamed as Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy. It was the first institution to get the 'Deemed University status' in Tamil Nadu. Srinivasa Ramanujam Center at Kumbakonam is attached to it.

In 2011, a software company Tata Consultancy Services set a world record of recruiting 1,755 students from SASTRA, the largest recruitment by any company in the world from a single campus.

Campus

The campus is built on 232 acres (94 ha) of land. The total built area is about 195,000 square metres (2,100,000 sq ft), out of which about 85,000 square metres (910,000 sq ft) are hostels, quarters and guest houses. SASTRA will provide totally 119 courses across the 10 Streams.

Ranking

Internationally, SASTRA was ranked in the 401–450 band among Asian universities by the QS World University Rankings: Asia 2024. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked it in the 1201–1500 band in the world and the 401–500 band in Asia.

In India, SASTRA was ranked 38 among engineering colleges by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2024, 28 among universities, and 14 among law colleges and 47th overall.

Festivals

The first edition of Kuruksastra was held on 2–3 March 2007. The second edition of Kuruksastra was on 6–9 March 2008.

It started the tradition of hosting musical celebrities for a "Pro Nite" show with singers such as Shankar Mahadevan, Karthik, Mahathi, Pop Shalini, Stephen Devassy, Sid Sriram, Rajhesh Vaidhya and Suchitra. It had over 1200 participants, making it one of the largest such festivals in the country.

Land Encroachment Case

In 1985, the Thanjavur Revenue Department accused the institution with encroachment and issued an eviction notice. The institute objected and the parties engaged in a long judicial battle. The institute was sent with an eviction notice by the Madras High Court in 2018. The institute challenged this again seeking assignment of the said lands in its name, but the High Court rejected the case and issued a Government Order preventing lands to the assigned to the institute. The Tamil Nadu government on February 25, 2022, issued an eviction notice after the court's order.