Siksha 'O' Anusandhan

Siksha 'O' Anusandhan (SOA), formerly known as Siksha 'O' Anusandhan University, is a private deemed university situated in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. It was founded in 1996 as the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), initially affiliated with Utkal University, and later with Biju Patnaik University of Technology from 2002 to 2007. In 2007, the University Grants Commission declared SOA a Deemed to be University under the UGC Act, 1956, and ITER became its constituent institute. The university spans 127 acres in Bhubaneswar and comprises nine degree-granting schools and institutes offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, medicine, pharmacy, business, nursing, biotechnology, agriculture, and law. Admissions are conducted through the Siksha 'O' Anusandhan Admission Test (SAAT). In 2024, the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked SOA 24th overall in India and 14th among universities. The university has sixteen research centres, with over 1,000 Ph.D. scholars and 599 doctorates awarded as of 2023. It also operates hostels, a central library, and a startup incubator called SOA-CII.