People's Education Society University (PESU), formerly PES Institute of Technology (PESIT), is a private university in Bengaluru, India. Established in 1988, it is focused on the following educational areas: Engineering, Management, Law, Economics, Commerce, Architecture, Design, Psychology, Arts, Medicine and Life Sciences. The institution offers both foundation courses in these areas, as well as specializations, with a Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD degree.[3] The college was established as PES University in 2013, as a private university. There are three campuses under PES University in Bangalore: Ring Road Campus located at Banashankari 3rd stage outer ring road Bangalore, Electronic City Campus located at Electronic City hosur road Bangalore, and Hanmumanth Nagar Campus located at Banashankari 1st stage Bangalore.
History
PESU is managed by the People‘s Education Society (PES), which was founded in 1972, in a rented gymnasium in Bengaluru, with around 40 students. PES currently manages over 45 educational programs in Karnataka and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, with a total of over 18,000 students.[4]
PESU was started as PESIT in 1988 as the first engineering college under the PES group of institutions.[1] The college was affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi and later became an autonomous college under VTU. The college was established as PES University in 2013 and renamed as PES University.
Prof. M. R. Doreswamy Silver Jubilee Complex (A-Block)
PES University, Hanumantha Nagar Campus (formed by the merger of PES College of Pharmacy and PES Degree College)
Academic profile
Admission criteria
PESU admits 40% of its students to undergraduate courses based on their Karnataka CET ranks and 60% of its students based on PESSAT (the university's own entrance test) ranks. PESU also admits students under a Management quota, which may not place any merit requirements. There is a lateral entry scheme in place, by which students holding diploma degrees can directly enter the second year of study in engineering. On graduating, students receive a Bachelor of Technology degree.
Students are admitted to postgraduate courses based on their GATE test scores as well as on their Post Graduate Karnataka CET scores. Upon graduating, they receive a Master of Technology degree.[7]
Faculty and research
Crucible Of Research and Innovation (CORI) is a multi-disciplinary research center at PES University. It was inaugurated by Dr. C. N. R. Rao (former Director, Indian Institute of Science) on 7 February 2010. It has research facilities and a set of dedicated research staff who carry out research in various areas.[8]
Centre for Intelligent Systems (CIS) is a research center at PES University which researches on topics like Control Systems, Speech, Image and Signal Processing, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Low Power VLSI design. Selected students do internships in the PES Innovation Lab (formerly Microsoft Innovation Lab) on the university campus.[9]
On July 17, 2023, a student committed suicide by jumping off the eighth floor of a building on the university campus.[11][12][13] The deceased was later identified as Aditya Prabhu, a 19-year old Bachelor of Technology student of the university. The incident occurred after he was allegedly caught using a mobile phone during an examination.[11] Aditya was escorted out of the examination hall at around 11:30 am (IST). He was counselled by the college authorities and informed that his parents would be notified. Distressed, he left the room and jumped to his death some time between 12:30 and 1:00 pm. Aditya's parents then proceeded to file a police complaint against the university management holding them responsible for his death. Aditya's mother alleged through social media that Aditya told her he was being harassed by the college faculty who told him that "it’s better to die than to do such things".[14] The university also caught flak for leaked screenshots from a college group where a member of the administration was seen encouraging students to support the university by countering backlash with positive posts about the university.[15]
In response, the university released a statement refuting the charges of harassment and against their policy on malpractice during examinations. Expressing regret, the statement claimed that Aditya was escorted for carrying a mobile phone with material related to the examination and that he was counselled to stay calm and would be given the opportunity to explain his side of the story before he left the room. It went on to refute "all charges that are being made regarding the process and all the lies that are being circulated by opinions on our staff and the welfare of our students".[15][16] Three members of the faculty, who were present with Aditya were later charged with abetting suicide.[17]
