Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit

Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit
Motto	ज्ञानादेव तु कैवल्यम् (Sanskrit)
Motto in English	Liberation through knowledge
Type	Public
Established	1993; 31 years ago
Chancellor	Governor of Kerala
Vice-Chancellor	Dr. M. V. Narayanan
Location	Kalady, Kerala, India; 10°10′13″N 76°26′19″E / 10.17028°N 76.43861°E
Affiliations	UGC, NAAC, AIU.
Website	ssus.ac.in

The Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit (SSUS) is a Sanskrit university in India established in 1993 in Kalady, Kochi, Kerala. The foundation stone for the university was laid by Bharathi Tirtha Mahaswamiji of the Sringeri Sharada Peetham.^[1] SSUS provides education in Sanskrit, other Indian and Foreign languages, Social science and fine arts. It is accredited A+ by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).^[2] The university has eight regional campuses across Kerala.

Campus

The university functions through seven campuses, the main one at Kalady (main campus) and regional campuses at Thiruvananthapuram, Panmana, Ettumanoor, Tirur, Koyilandy and Payyannur.^[3]^[4] Most of these campuses are located in rural areas of the State, intending to serve people from disadvantaged backgrounds. More than ninety percent of the students and research scholars in the university are from economically and socially backward communities and families and more than seventy percent are women.^[5]

A panoramic view of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady with Traditional Kerala-style architecture

Organisation and administration

Departments

The university consists of the following departments.^[6]

Sanskrit Vedanta
Sanskrit Sahitya
Sanskrit Vyakarna
Sanskrit Nyaya
Sanskrit General
English
Geography
Hindi
History
Malayalam
Music
Painting
Philosophy
Political Science
Psychology
Arabic
Ayurveda
Economics
Dance
Education
School of Vedic Studies
Social Work
Sociology
Theatre
Urdu
Vastuvidya

Former Vice-Chancellors


SL. No.	Name	Took office	Left office
1	R. Ramachandran Nair^[7]^[8]	1994	1996
2	N. P. Unni^[9]	1996	2000
3	K. N. Panikkar	2000	2004
4	K. S. Radhakrishnan^[10]	2004	2008
5	J. Prasad^[11]	2008	Unknown
6	Dharmarajan P. K.^[12]	2017	2021
7	M. K. Jayaraj (acting)^[13]	2021	2022
8	M. V. Narayanan^[14]	2022	Present

Academics

Academic programmes

The university has twenty six PhD programmes, twenty MPhil programmes, twenty four PG programmes, ten UG programmes, two PgD programmes, one Diploma programme and nine certificate programmes offered by the twenty-four academic departments. The Choice Based Credit and Semester System (CBCSS) was introduced in 2005 in SSUS.^[15] In 2018, the university implemented the system of Outcome Based Teaching, Learning and Evaluation (OBTLE) at the Post graduate level, becoming the first university in Kerala to introduce OBTLE. In 2021, the university becomes a part of KALNET, a shared platform for academic resources of libraries, developed by Kerala State Higher Education Council.^[16] The university's postgraduate programme in Museology will be launched in 2021.^[17]

Accreditation

The University Grants Commission has recognized the university with 2(f) status in 1994 and 12(B) status in 2005.^[18] On 31 August 2021, the university was accredited by NAAC with A+ grade, the first University in Kerala and the first Sanskrit University in the country to earn the achievement.^[19] In September 2014, the university was accredited by NAAC with A grade, the first University in Kerala to receive the grade in the first cycle of accreditation.^[20]