Media Release
Mangaluru, Apr 11: St Aloysius College belongs to a network of educational institutions administered by the members of the Society of Jesus, a religious order which runs schools, colleges and universities in more than 105 countries in the world. The members of the order, popularly known as Jesuits, have acquired a reputation for excellence in the quality of education. Some of the distinguished Jesuit institutions of higher education in India are St Xavier’s College in Kolkata, St Xavier’s College in Mumbai, Loyola College in Chennai, St Joseph’s College in Trichy, Xavier Institute of Labour Relations (XLRI) in Jameshedpur, and Xavier University in Bhuvaneshwar. These and many other highly acclaimed centres of learning are managed by the Jesuits and deeply rooted in Jesuit values of commitment and excellence.
Established in 1880, St Aloysius College prides itself in its history of 142 years. Thousands of students who have passed through the portals of this institution have rendered outstanding service to humankind not only in India but across the globe. Despite its status as a minority institution, the college has imparted high quality education to all sections of society regardless of caste, colour or creed. The motto of the college, ‘Lucet et Ardet’ which means ‘Shine to Enkindle’ has inspired countless students to become men and women with and for others and thus bring light and joy into the lives of people. It is for this reason that Jesuit education has become a touchstone for evolving new paradigms in higher education.
The college has been assessed by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and secured ‘A’ Grades in the I and II cycle in the year 2004 and 2009 respectively. In the III cycle, the college secured ‘A’ Grade with CGPA 3.62 out of 4 in 2015. It has attained yet another distinctive achievement by securing the highest A++ grade with the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3.67 out of 4 in the fourth cycle of NAAC accreditation. The college is rated as one of the best higher educational institutions in the state and the country with this distinctive grade. In the earlier three cycles of accreditation, the college attained one of the highest grades awarded by NAAC. In the third cycle of NAAC in 2015, the college was awarded ‘A’ grade with a CGPA of 3.62 out of 4.
The peer team expressed their satisfaction and appreciation for the great strides the institution has been taking and growing from strength to strength. The team commended the efforts of the institution towards enhancing its credentials in all areas of higher education aligning its vision to the local, regional, national and global needs. The campus culture that represents diversity, equity and inclusion, the talent pool of students in sports and cultural performances, environmental initiatives and decentralization of governance were some of the salient features of the institution highlighted by the peer team. The chairperson of the peer team said that the institution deserves to be upgraded to a university and wished that it happens very soon.
Besides this, the college also secured several awards from the UGC and other autonomous bodies in the earlier years. The NIRF-2021 ranking awarded by the MHRD, the college has been ranked 95 among the colleges in India, featured in top 3 colleges of Karnataka. Over 6000 institutions across India participated in this assessment. The college is ranked within the band of 100-150 among colleges in the country in 2020. The college was awarded with ‘College with Potential for Excellence’ status by UGC in the year 2009 which helped in upgrading the science laboratories and providing state-of-the-art infrastructural facilities for research. It has also awarded ‘Star College Scheme’ by the department of biotechnology, government of India in 2012 and upgraded with ‘College with Star Status’ in 2016.
From LKG to PhD, St Aloysius Institutions offer them all. The 143-year-old college has emerged as Mangaluru’s premier educational hub with lakhs of students who have passed out of its portals, earning laurels in varied fields.
St Aloysius College became the first institution in the coastal region to completely go online for admissions since 2017.
Undergraduate programmes: The college has 7 undergraduate programmes. It provides bachelors of arts with 15 combinations, B.Sc. with 16 combinations, BSc (Visual Communication), BSc with Food Science as a combination, BCom with 8 batches and BBA with 4 batches including embedded and vocational programmes like ACCA, CA and Industry Integrated, BCA with four batches and BVoc with 5 programmes.
Postgraduate programmes: Presently, there are 21 postgraduate programmes across disciplines along with research studies. They are: MA (English), MA (Economics), MA (Journalism and Mass Communication,) MSc (Corporate Psychology), MSW, MSc (Biotechnology), MSc (Chemistry), MSc (Analytical Chemistry), MSc (Physics), MSc (Mathematics), MSc (Food Science and Technology), MSc (Biochemistry), MSc (Food, Nutrition and Dietetics); MSc (Big Data Analytics), MSc (Software Technology), MSc (Bioinformatics), MSc (Data Science), MCom, MCom (Finance & Analytics); MBA and MCA.
The college takes pride in offering 5 postgraduate diploma and 3 diploma programmes along with more than 15 skill-oriented add on programmes. These additional certificate programmes can be pursued along with the regular undergraduate and postgraduate programmes which will add value to students’ academic attainment.
The Konkani Institute, established in 1980, is another example of the efforts of the college to promote research in Konkani language, literature and culture. It also offers diploma and PG diploma in Konkani.
The Biotechnology Finishing School Scheme offers specialized training for select students with hands on training in the cutting industries.
In an attempt to promote research among students, the college has collaborated with Tumkur University to start and Advance Research Centre. Besides, three departments have been recognized as research centres by the Mangalore University. The encouragement given to research has enabled the staff members to publish research articles in the UGC approved journals.
In April 2020, St Aloysius College responded quickly to the challenge of Covid-19 pandemic and launched an exclusive e-learning portal (sac-elearning.com) of its own. The main aim of launching the e-learning portal is to offer various types on online activities to engage the staff and students to follow continuous learning in spite of the pandemic. More than 50 free online certificate courses were offered to students and the public. More than 4,000 students and teachers from more than 300 institutions from India and abroad took part in these courses. This initiative has enhanced the public image of the college at the global level. In addition, the college has been organizing several webinars on very contemporary topics during the pandemic and that initiative has received global recognition. The exclusive institutional e-learning portal, on the other hand, will continue to serve the educational and career growth needs of student community across the globe.
Continuing the legacy, the college has launched many new and innovative undergraduate and postgraduate programmes from 2022-23. The curriculum has been designed to suit the aspirations of the New Education Policy (NEP) with a multidisciplinary approach and driven by skill acquisition for employment prospects including project and internship based learning outcomes.
Keeping in mind the needs and aspirations of students from different backgrounds, the College has evolved a customized shift system.
The morning shift starting at 7 am will accommodate programmes in BSc (Visual Communication), BSc (Food Science & Chemistry), BSc (Food Science & Biochemistry) and BCom (Apprenticeship/Internship Embedded). Students have the opportunity to pursue internships and online/offline certificate courses, MOOCs and earn additional credits.
In addition, the department of Kannada has designed an innovative and career oriented Kannada major course integrated with a diploma/postgraduate diploma in creative communication. The new course has the objective of creating professionals with effective communications skills by training students in theatre and public speaking skills in specialized labs.
All the above programmes and courses are designed in lines of the NEP-2020 with multidisciplinary approach, cutting edge knowledge and skills for 21st century with internships, soft skills and project based learning leading to gainful employment.
The college was awarded the autonomous status 16 years ago and has continually strived to upgrade itself with state-of-the-art curriculum imparting global competencies. It has been functioning like a university with undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across disciplines with more than 20 research centers offering PhD programmes having more than 30 research guides recognized by various universities and research institutions.
The student enrolment has grown in leaps and bounds in the last few years. The learner-friendly campus culture and pedagogical practices have attracted thousands of students to the college. The plethora of inter-disciplinary, multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary programmes offered by the college have facilitated holistic learning outcomes and resulted in extensive placements with lucrative packages of salaries. The college is on the threshold of becoming a university soon. In this context, all stakeholders of the institution are upbeat and looking forward to another academic year with excitement and hope.
The distinctive achievements of the college in recent years have been a testimony for the excellence attained:
1. Our ranking in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) conducted by MHRD, government of India has been 44 among all the colleges in India in 2017. It has always remained within the best 150 colleges at the national Level.
2. The college has been brought under 2 (f) and 12 (B) of UGC regulations.
3. The college has been declared a ‘College with Potential for Excellence’ by the University Grants Commission since 2009.
4. The ‘STAR College Scheme’ conferred by the DBT, government of India has been upgraded to ‘STAR Status’ in 2016.
5. The University Grants Commission has awarded ‘DDU Kaushal Kendra’ to the college for offering bachelor of vocational programmes (BVoc) in 2015.
6. Karnataka state government, which had sanctioned ‘BTFS Finishing School’ earlier, has now selected (2017) the college under the scheme of ‘BiSEP’ [Biotechnology Skill Enhancement Programme].
7. The college was brought under grant–in-aid by department of higher education, government of Karnataka.
8. The college has uploaded the data of All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE)-2016-17, MHRD, statistics division, government of India.
9. The college was ranked 3 at the all India level among all colleges under the Campus Swacchta Scheme. This has been a rarest of recognition for the green initiatives in the campus.
10. The college has been recognized as a ‘Centre of Research’ capacity building under UGC-scheme for trans-disciplinary research for India’s developing economy (STRIDE- COMPONENT I). The college is one among the 34 colleges that have been chosen by UGC for this scheme. The college has proposed the research project on the study of the cultural diversity of coastal Karnataka.
11. Under the PARAMARSH Scheme of the UGC, the college has been selected to be a modal mentor college to support 5 NAAC non-accredited colleges in training and preparing them for NAAC accreditation.
12. The college has been awarded the prestigious DBT-BUILDER scheme for inter-disciplinary research in biosciences in 2021.
Facilities:
• The institution has excellent infrastructural facilities with 2 centers extending over 50 acres of land. Adequate number of classrooms, well-equipped laboratories, cutting-edge electronic gadgets, the high-speed internet connectivity with Wi-Fi facility and adequate libraries, both at UG and PG levels have been widely acknowledged by various expert committees.
• The college has more than 7000 students at various levels. The students have excelled not only in academics but also in cultural, sports and games and many other fields of performance. The college has all the wings of NCC and NSS units. In fact, the college is the only one college in the university area to have all the three full-fledged wings of NCC.
• The emphasis on skill development, personality development, language proficiency along with academics has enhanced the employability skills. There have been many add-on programmes which add value to the degree programmes. The creditable achievements of the students include passing the NET examinations, research entrance examinations of reputed institutions of excellence and placements.
• Students have been offered facilities like sports, recreation, photocopying, health check-up, disabled friendly structures, photocopying centers, co-operative stores, buggies, drinking water, sanitation, Al-kshema Dhama, etc. There are separate student hostels in each of the centres for both men and lady students. The student cooperative store caters to the stationery needs of students.
• The vision and the mission of the college lays thrust on social consciousness. Only a compassionate and empathetic person can be instrumental in the inclusive development of the society. In this direction, the social extension activities undertaken by the college deserve a special mention. The college has created a separate Centre for Social Concern (CSC), which regulates, monitors and promotes social empowerment activities.
• Each undergraduate student has to fulfill social service activity as specified for 20 hours in each of the first two years. The programme is titled ‘SAHAAYA’.
• Postgraduate students have to spend a minimum one week in a remote village selected for this purpose under ‘Village Exposure’ programme actually staying with families accompanied by teachers.
• Radio Sarang 107.8 FM, the community radio reaches out to the surrounding areas of Mangaluru for 16 hours a day in five different local languages through several programmes promoting and spreading awareness on local culture, language, health and hygiene, economic and social aspects of life. The community radio has bagged multiple national awards for promoting local language and culture.
• The college has a sprawling and aesthetically designed campus with several green zones and eco-friendly systems.
• The world renowned paintings in the college chapel attract thousands of foreign and domestic tourists. The college museum with rare collections is an added attraction.
Alumni – SACAA
The college has a vibrant alumni base engaging itself continually in the projects and activities of the college. SACAA, the St Aloysius College Alumni Association has been responsible for bolstering the infrastructure, public image and liaising with the Alumni networks all over the world.
The college feels proud that some of the excellent talents in leadership, entrepreneurship and social service of national and international repute have been the products of this college. K S Hegde, former speaker of the Lok Sabha; the late George Fernandes, eminent political leader; Justice Santhosh Hegde, former Lokayukta; K V Kamath, BRICS Bank chairman; Dr K V Rao, international physicist; Dr TMA Pai who has been instrumental in establishing the renowned Manipal University; K K Venugopal, the present attorney general; Aravind Adiga, Man Booker prize winner; Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX; Dr K Ullas Karanth, leading conservation zoologist; K L Rahul, cricketer; are a few personalities among many others who have made a mark in public life by living a life that is typically Aloysian.