Higher education

On 28 August 2025, the Gujarat-based Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) and the AVFO inaugurated the “RRU-Auroville Security Training Academy (RASTA)” at Bharat Nivas.

A recent survey of students in the villages surrounding Auroville found that 73 per cent of college graduates are still unemployed within one or two years of graduation.

The Auroville Gap Year Programme (AGYP) was designed by Auroville Campus Initiative (ACI) to provide a learning platform to the youth of Auroville between the ages of 17 and 30.

The Auro Vidya Retreat, a branch of the Pondicherry-based Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research (SACAR) directed by Dr. Ananda Reddy, was inaugurated at its location near Auroville on September 9, 2018.

Auroville’s college scholarship initiative for village students, Reach for the Stars, is now in its fifth year and has supported 56 students to date.

I was born in Auroville, but at the age of 14 I chose to go study at the Kodaikanal International School. I had always wanted to get out. I was always told that Auroville is a special place, and my parents were both here for that reason; but when you grow up it is not so evident why Auroville is special.

In Auroville as a toddler and then raised there from the age of 8, I left Auroville in 1993 at 18 to pursue university studies in America. Although I worked part-time through my education, I still finished my degree with close to $20,000 in government-funded student loans.

“I hear that you’re leaving Auroville.” The words stung more than I thought they would. Even after years of developing a thick skin and learning to shrug off Auroville gossip, somehow this statement still pinched.

With the demise of Dr. Kireet Joshi on 14 September 2014, the Aurobindonian firmament has lost one of its brightest stars. Born on 10 August 1931, he studied philosophy and law at the Elphinstone College under the University of Bombay.