SOA was founded as the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) in 1996 at Bhubaneswar and received AICTE approval for B.Tech.

[5] Siksha 'O' Anusandhan has nine degree-granting schools and institutes[6] that offer undergraduate programs in engineering, medicine, pharmacy, business, nursing, biotechnology, agriculture and law; graduate programs in engineering, medicine, pharmacy, business, nursing, biotechnology, science, humanities, environment, nano technology, materials science, agriculture and law;[7] and doctoral degrees in the above areas.

[22][23] The Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) is the Faculty of Engineering and Technology of Siksha 'O' Anusandhan.

[citation needed] ITER includes the following departments: The university is spread over 450 acres (1.8 km2) in the temple city of Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

[citation needed] The libraries participate in resource sharing networks and consortia such as UGC-INFLIBNET and MHRD-INDEST.

It operates as a scaled incubator program that nurtures and accelerates startups in their conceptual and development stages.