Cluster University, Kurnool is a state public university in Andhra Pradesh created by combining the academic resources of three established government colleges in Kurnool. The university was established under the Cluster University (Kurnool) Act, 2019, enacted as Andhra Pradesh Act No. 13 of 2020. The Government of Andhra Pradesh described it as the first cluster university in South India, using the cluster model to bring nearby colleges under one unitary university structure while retaining their established campuses and academic strengths. The three constituent institutions are Silver Jubilee Government College (Autonomous), KVR Government Degree College for Women (Autonomous), and Government Degree College for Men, Kurnool. Under the statutory model, Cluster University, Kurnool is a unitary and non-affiliating university whose jurisdiction is limited to the campuses forming the cluster. Infrastructure development was supported through the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan framework. The constituent colleges offer undergraduate and postgraduate study across sciences, arts, commerce and related disciplines, allowing students to draw on a larger combined academic environment than a single college could provide independently. The cluster arrangement is intended to support shared faculty expertise, laboratories, libraries and interdisciplinary opportunities while creating a university-level academic and degree-awarding structure. The three colleges were de-affiliated from Rayalaseema University for the new cluster arrangement from the 2021 academic year. The first Vice-Chancellor was appointed in March 2021 as the administrative system was established. Cluster University, Kurnool’s identity therefore rests on consolidation rather than creation of a completely new residential campus. It builds university status around existing public colleges with long histories in Kurnool, including Silver Jubilee Government College and Government College for Men. The model aims to strengthen public undergraduate and postgraduate education through coordinated curricula, shared resources, research development and a common university governance system. This structure creates a distributed campus while keeping governance, curriculum and degree authority within one university.