Velagapudi Ramakrishna Siddhartha Engineering College or VRSEC is a private engineering college located in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India, that offers undergraduate education and postgraduate education in engineering. The institution is the first private institution to offer engineering education in united Andhra Pradesh and first private college to offer PG Programmes in engineering in the state in the year 1977. The college was approved to be an autonomous institution by Acharya Nagarjuna University in the year 1977. Background Siddhartha Academy of General & Technical Education, better known as Siddhartha Academy, came into being in the year 1975 with a Corpus Fund of Rs.25 lakhs (Rs.2.5 million) through the efforts of 250 life members drawn from different walks of life having a philanthropic bent of mind. This was registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act in the same year. The main objective of the academy is to establish and run educational institutions offering education at all levels in the fields of general, technical & professional education. The establishment of Siddhartha Educational Institutions followed by the establishment of other educational institutions in the last 28 years transformed this city into one of the major educational centres. As Indias second largest Railway Junction and as one of the biggest Agro Commodity Trading Centres and as the commercial hub krishna region, Vijayawada has become the second important place in the state after Visakhapatnam. Today, Siddhartha Academy is running 14 Educational Institutions, three colleges offering Intermediate(+2) and Degree (Under Graduate) courses for men and women along with a Post Graduate Centre (Graduate Programmes), two Schools one of which is fully residential, two Engineering colleges, a medical college, a college of Law, a college of Education(B.Ed), a college of Pharmaceutical Sciences and a college of Hotel Management & Catering Technology. All Siddhartha Institutions are duly approved by respective Central and State Governments and other concerned bodies. Location The institution is located on of land in Kanuru on the outskirts of Vijayawada city at a distance of about from the city centre, on the Vijayawada-Machilipatnam Highway (NH 65). Campus The college has about 5700 students, more than 350 faculty ( Faculty with 88 Ph.D.s & 100 pursuing Ph.D.s )and around 200 technical and supporting staff. Extracurricular opportunities include NCC, NSS, Students Chapters of IEEE, social clubs and sports & games. Departments Engineering Electrical and Electronics Engineering Electronics and Communication Engineering Civil Engineering Computer Science & Engineering