The Hindu : Kerala News : Mar Athanasius College, Kothamangalam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

Mar Athanasius College, Kothamangalam

The Mar Athanasius College, Kothamangalam is one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the state. It has 9 postgraduate courses and 14 degree courses (6 in science, 5 in arts and 3 in commerce). The college has four regional University Research Centres in English, Economics, Chemistry and Physics. It has excellent infrastructure facilities like well equipped laboratories, a multi-storied, fully automated library, reprographic centre, non-resident students’ centre, women’s hostel, multimedia studio, instrument maintenance facility, computer centres with internet access, sophisticated instrumentation centre and network resource center. It has total student strength of 1620, faculty comprising 94 teachers and 50 members on the non-teaching staff.

The college has conducted 82 National and State level seminars during the last five years. During the last five years alone members of the various faculties have published 149 research papers in reputed journals in India and abroad. The Ph.D theses of three teachers were qualified for publication grant from the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) New Delhi. The present Principal Dr.Winny Varghese was nominated in 2006 as a member of the U.G.C expert committee for conferring and extending autonomous status to colleges in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Andhra Pradesh.

Adding a new dimension, e-learning facility through virtual classrooms is being offered by the college. The courses offered through the satellite system cater primarily to learners who are on the look out for competitive edge in specialized knowledge related to their regular university courses. The Counselling Cell of Mar Athanasius College is constituted with a view to enable students to face the stress and strain of academic life and to face the challenges and problems of interpersonal relationships.

An officer who is a post-graduate in Clinical Psychology is in charge of the counseling cell. In the year 2005, the college appointed a full time Career Guidance Officer for the benefit of students. The centre is provided with all modern facilities including computers and display boards. The centre also organizes career guidance seminars periodically. A placement cell is operational under a full time officer appointed specially for the purpose.

Mar Athanasius College is the first institution in Kerala to be accredited with ’A Grade’ by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) which is an autonomous body under University Grants Commission. NAAC Peer Team led by Dr.Prahithra Bhushan Sarkar (Vice Chairman, West Bengal State Council for Higher Education and former Vice-Chancellor, Rabindra Bharati University) visited the college in June 2007 for assessment. Based on their report the college was accredited with ’A Grade’.

The college was selected as one among the best ten colleges in Kerala by ’Vanitha’, a popular Malayalam magazine. It was a poignant moment in the history of the college when it celebrated with Golden Jubilee during academic year 2004-05. The college can rightly boast of sparkling achievements in the field of sports and games. Recently two students from the college won medals in the world religious peace meet held at Seol, South Korea. In March 2007, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) recognized Mar Athanasius College as its sub-centre in athletics in Kerala. M.A.College is the first college in M.G. University to win this honour in athletics.

The college has a composite indoor stadium cum auditorium with a capacity to accommodate 1,000 persons and with facilities for indoor games like badminton and volleyball. The college library is the state’s first fully automated college library which has offered internet facility to students since 1996 and has a collection of more than 60,000 books, 1500 reference books, numerous journals and periodicals.

Delegations from the college periodically visit centres of industries to rope in companies to conduct campus interviews in the college. Commerce, microbiology, biochemistry and biotechnology courses have proved to be highly popular with the industry. In March this year, the college bagged the prestigious "Palathully Puraskaram" under college category instituted by Malayala Manorama in recognition of the eco-friendly and water conservation projects successfully carried out in and around Kothamangalam by the college and its Pollution Control Club. The award carried a cash prize of one lakh, a citation and certificate.

More recently, 3000 students of the college under the leadership of Prof.M.P.Varghese (Secretary, Mar Athansius College Association) distributed free preventive medicines and conducted medical camps in Kothamangalam Taluk and Adimali for preventing Chikun Gunya and viral fever that spread across these areas.

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