The School of Business, Amrita University Coimbatore has earned the distinction of the only Indian institution to find a place in the prestigious United Nations Sustainable Literacy Test (Sulitest) which evaluates knowledge about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) among students in higher education.

The High-level Political Forum (HLPF) at UN released the 2019 annual report from Sulitest, during its annual follow-up and review of 2030 agenda for sustainability. Under Higher Education Sustainability Initiative HESI, Sulitest was recognized in 2016 as one of the first featured initiatives of the UN Partnerships for Sustainable Development Goals and contributed to the second UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report in 2017. As of 2017, Sulitest became a contributor to the review of the 2030 Agenda through HLPF.

Under Chancellor AMMA’s guidance, Amrita University is committed to teaching sustainable development across all disciplines of study. MBA students at Amrita University study a core course called Environmental Management and Sustainable Development (EMSD) and Sulitest is an integral part of the course.

For over four years now, over 1000 Amrita MBA students have undertaken this test successfully demonstrating the effectiveness of Sulitest as an excellent learning tool integrated well into the course curriculum. Amrita School of Business has figured prominently in the annual report released by UN on the basis of the number of tests taken per academic organization, according to its Chairman, Dr Raghu Raman, who represented Amrita University at this annual event at the UN.

In 2019, the university improved its position by 10 notches to the top 20 institutes from that as one among the top 30 institutes in 2018. The students at Amrita School of Business have been active users of several learning modules of the Sulitest.  They use Sulitest as an innovative tool to engage faculty and students in its quest to create awareness about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 169 well-defined targets aimed at “transforming our world.

Dr. Sanjay Banerji, Professor Emeritus School of Business, Coimbatore draws on the significant synergies between the mission of the university and the spirit of UN SDGs when he says” Our Chancellor, Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, committed to integrating UN SDGs into curriculum; at the UN Academic Impact Initiative (UNAI) in July 2015. Accordingly, Amrita School of Business designed a core course titled Environment Management for Sustainable Development for MBA students. Sulitest is used in this course, both in practice mode and in examination mode”.

Amrita University has emerged as the top Swachh Campus in the Swachatha rankings of Govt of India. The University has a very unique initiative, Amrita Live-in Labs, which provides a multi-disciplinary experiential learning opportunity for the students and the faculty while trying find creative and sustainable solutions for the rural communities. The university gives a further push to the efforts in capacity building by instituting 100 scholarships for research grounded in real world settings and linked to SDGs.

Amrita University is also a part of The Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI), which is a partnership between UN Global Compact’s Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative, United Nations University (UNU) and other UN agencies. Through its strong association with the United Nations, HESI provides higher education institutions with a unique interface for higher education, science, and policy making.