As of 2019[update], the university has 29 Departments of study and research, offering graduate and post-graduate programmes across a wide spectrum of disciplines in Engineering, Science, Technology, Humanities, Law & Management.

Research is sponsored by agencies including UGC, AICTE, IUCAA, DST, DRDO, CSIR, IUAC, DAE, and KSCSTE.

Research is sponsored by external agencies including the DST, ISRO, AICTE, DOE, DRDO, MOD and the state government.

As an academic department, it now has research programmes in the areas of Instrumentation and Applied Physics, sponsored by external funding agencies including DST, DAE, UGC, AICTE, KSCSTE and TWAS.

It is funded by agencies including Nuffic (MHO, The Netherlands), Volkswagen Foundation (Germany), MHRD, AICTE, DRDO, DST, and UGC.

The Naval Architecture programme is run in collaboration with the University of Rostock, Germany, and its graduates are in demand for positions in the shipbuilding industry, ship classification societies, R&D organisations, and the Indian Navy.

[citation needed] The Society of Naval Architecture Students in the department publishes an annual Technical Magazine, SHIPSTECHNIC.

Research activities include the design and fabrication of various laser systems and laser components, investigations of non-linear phenomena in different materials using photothermal, photoacoustic and related techniques, time- and space-resolved studies on laser-induced plasmas, design and characterization of fibre-optic sensors, fabrication and characterisation of polymer fibres, preparation and investigation of photonic materials and studies on photonics theory, sponsored by funding agencies including DST, AICTE and UGC.

The department offers postgraduate programmes leading to the degrees of MTech (Opto Electronics and Laser Technology) and PhD.

It offers a Masters in Computer Applications programme with the financial support of UGC and the Department of Electronics, Government of India.

The curriculum includes exposure to the current technologies like Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, AI, Big Data Analytics etc.

[22] The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) is a permanent signatory to the Washington Accord that sets standards for engineering undergraduate degrees in a number of countries.

[23] The School also provides short term courses in an Engine Room Simulator for students preparing for competitive examinations conducted by the Directorate General of Shipping.

[citation needed] The School conducts UGC sponsored refresher Courses for university and college teachers, and offers consultancy services in climate resilience, environmental surveys, pollution monitoring, water quality management, water treatment, disease diagnosis and management of aquaculture systems, and environmental impact assessment.

The department's main focus is the teaching of languages including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian.

[citation needed] The School of Legal Studies was initially established as the Postgraduate Department of Law of Kerala University in 1962.

[citation needed] The school maintains an Intellectual Property Rights repository consisting of rare books and journals, with help from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a component agency of the United Nations, has donated its major publications to this repository.

The centre is also supported by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India, which has already established a Chair on Intellectual Property Rights in CUSAT in 2003.

B.Com LLB (5 year) UGC has introduced DDU KAUSHAL KENDRAS (DDUKK) for promoting vocational education in continuation to its initiatives for introducing community colleges and B.Voc Programmes realizing the importance and the necessity for developing skills among students, and creating work ready manpower on large scale.

DDUKK was originally established with Dr. Zakkariaya K.A (Professor, School of Management Studies, CUSAT) as the founder director in the year 2015.

B.Voc in Business Process and Data Analytics The Department of Industrial Fisheries was established in 1976 and upgraded to a school in 1995 to recognize its academic and scientific achievements.

[citation needed] The department offers post-graduate coursework leading to the degrees of MSc (Meteorology) and MTech (Atmospheric Science).

[citation needed] The department offers post-graduate coursework leading to the degrees of MSc (Oceanography) and MTech (Ocean Technology).

It was founded in October 1964 as a part of Kerala University, under the leadership of Professor Emeritus M. V. Pylee and located in the premises of the Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd.

The government of Kerala has approved C-SIS as a training centre for high school science teachers under the "Sastraposini" Programme.

It includes research laboratories in bacteriology, virology, animal tissue culture, immunology, genomics, proteomics, fermentation, and bioassays.

[citation needed] The centre has performed studies relating to the World Bank, the European Union, the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Development Research Institute of The Netherlands, the Tilburg University, the Ministries of Agriculture and of Plantation (Government of India), and the Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation Ltd.[citation needed] The CUSAT stampede was a fatal incident that occurred on 25 November 2023, at the CUSAT in Kochi, Kerala.

Four students died and 64 others were injured when a crowd of people tried to enter an open-air auditorium where a concert by singer Nikhita Gandhi was about to begin, as part of the university’s annual tech festival ‘Dhishna’.

The stampede was triggered by a sudden rain and a lack of proper crowd management, as only those with passes and ‘Dhishna’ T-shirts were allowed inside the auditorium, which had a single entrance/exit gate.