School of Planning and Architecture

The Schools of Planning and Architecture are a group of autonomous public institutes of higher education under Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. The SPAs lists three institutes located at Bhopal, New Delhi and Vijayawada. They were established with the objectives of providing quality Architecture and physical planning education. The SPAs primarily offer undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive education programmes.Each SPA is autonomous and exercises independent control over its day-to-day operations. However, the administration of all SPAs and the overall strategy of SPAs is overseen by the SPA council. The SPA Council is headed by India's Minister of Human Resource Development and consists of the chairpersons and directors of all SPAs and senior officials from the MHRD.HistoryThe history of the SPA system dates back to 1946 when Sir Jogendra Singh of the Viceroy's Executive Council set up a committee whose task was to consider the creation of Higher Technical Institutions for post-war industrial development in India. The 22-member committee, headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, recommended the establishment of these institutions in various parts of India,along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and consulting from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign with affiliated secondary institutions.