The academic programs at Amrita School for Sustainable Futures are designed to provide the students with a unique learning experience by working with the communities to solve real-world problems. The programs are offered across various thematic areas in alignment with the UN SDGs which are tailored to meet the academic interests of the students. The thematic areas are Agriculture, Education, Health & WellBeing, Water & Sanitation, Energy, Livelihood, Gender Equality, Environment, Climate Change & Risk Management.
E4Life Phd
Amrita’s Ph.D. program in Sustainable Development is a multidisciplinary and theory-into-practice Ph.D. program offered under the School for Sustainable Futures. The program is designed to provide an interdisciplinary grounding with its integrative courses, blending both experiential and academic learning.
Live-in-Labs® is a multidisciplinary experiential learning program that breaks classroom and lab barriers by applying learned theory in real-world settings. The program draws on principles of lean research for the development and deployment of sustainable solutions for current challenges faced by rural communities in India. By directly living in rural communities (labs) and co-designing solutions to development challenges, program participants gain first-hand knowledge and know-how of identifying and assessing community needs and subsequently developing and implementing viable solutions through various participatory methods.
India’s socioeconomic growth and development depends upon the sustenance of its rural communities, as 70% of its population are still living in rural villages. These communities form the backbone of the country. Despite the country’s overall progress, the rural population has been facing numerous pressing problems which need to be addressed. Some of the challenges they face include: extremely poor access to basic facilities and infrastructure, poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, waste management, along with the unexpected impact of climate change and extreme weather conditions that result in devastating natural disasters.