Media Release

Mangaluru, May 15: This chronicle of ‘The greatest glory of Mangaluru’, St Aloysius College (Autonomous), could unravel two-fold message to all educational institutions. A really sound and inclusive education and educational institution cannot be built without utmost dedication, nor can it be built without setting one’s sight on the zenith of all aspirations-excellence, excellence and excellence.

St Aloysius College (Autonomous), Mangaluru, is a multi-discipline, multi-faculty institution of higher education that runs Humanities & Social Sciences, Physical & Biological Sciences, Commerce & Management, Computer Science, Applications and Animation, Teacher Education and Vocational Degree Programmes at the Certificate, Diploma, Postgraduate Diploma, Undergraduate, Postgraduate degrees and at Doctoral levels.

Situated atop the Edyah Hill in the city of Mangalore (Mangaluru), overlooking the Arabian Sea coast like a grand jewel adorning the top of a crown surrounded by an ambience that exudes sheer peace, tranquillity and beauty of nature, St Aloysius College never fails to overawe and make an indelible mark in the very consciousness of the millions of visitors flocking to savour the spiritual aura and pristineness of its campus with its beautiful environs and structures and , most importantly, the plethora of engaging learning for life and for others.

St Aloysius College, which has a glorious and ever eventful legacy of 141 years of vibrant existence in the coastal belt of Karnataka and Kerala, belongs to an internationally acclaimed network of educational institutions administered by the members of the Society of Jesus, a religious Order that runs schools, Colleges and Universities in more than 105 countries all over the world. The members of the Order Popularly referred to as Jesuits have acquired the reputation for global excellence in the quality of education. Some of the distinguished Jesuit Institutions of higher education in India are St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, Loyola College, Chennai, St Joseph’s College, Trichy, XLRI, Jamshedpur, Xavier’s University, Bhuvaneshar, just to name a few.

XLRI, Jamshedpur

St Xavier’s College, Mumbai

XUB, Bhubaneswar

Loyola College, Chennai

Established in 1880, the College has shaped thousands of young men and women in its hallowed portals and has transformed them into men and women for and with others. The motto of the College, “LUCET ET ARDET” which means “SHINE TO ENKINDLE” has inspired countless young men and women to bring light and joy into the lives of the less fortunate ones of the society at the local, regional, state, national and at the global level making a vital mark in the minds and hearts of people through their outstanding credentials in serving humanity and upholding the mission of creating a global society driven by a humane, just, gender-sensitive and ecologically sustainable praxis. The prime thrust of all educational endeavours for Jesuits has always been academic excellence tempered with developing an holistic and integrated personality in students imbued with values of a just and proactive civil society, competence, compassion, conscience and commitment culminating in nation-building and global citizenship.

The Mangalore Jesuit Educational Society, MJES runs and manages this College with a firm believes in the Jesuit Educational Paradigm that every student;

• Perceives life and the whole universe as a gift calling forth wonder and gratitude. Operates by giving optimum scope for the faculties of imagination, emotion and intelligence.
• Seeks to find the divine in all things- in all peoples, cultures, fields of learning, and every human experience.
• Cultivates critical awareness of the context but points to God’s love as more potent than any evil.
• Stresses on freedom, need for discernment leading to responsible action.
• Empowers people to be leaders in service, being catalysts in building a more just and humane world.

The distinctive accolades and achievements of the College are a testimony to the level of excellence that the College has attained during the past few years:

The College has been accredited by NAAC at one of the highest grades in its assessment. The College is ranked at “A” grade with the CGPA of 3.62/4 in the third cycle of accreditation and is looking forward to the fourth cycle aspiring to upgrade the credentials significantly.

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking of the College has been consistently encouraging and presently it is within the band of 100-150 Colleges in the country.

The College has been brought under 2 (f) and 12 (b) of the UGC Regulations and is recognized as a Minority Institution with Grant-in-aid status.

The College has been declared ‘College with Potential for Excellence’ by UGC from 2009 onwards. ‘Star College’ Status conferred by DBT, Government of India has been upgraded to “STAR STATUS’ in 2016. UGC has awarded DDU Kaushal Kendra to the College for offering Vocational programmes. Presently the College offers 5 B.Voc programmes empowering youth with career skills leading to gainful employment in the cutting edge industries in the region, state and the country.

The state government had sanctioned BTFS Finishing School to the College and from 2017. It has brought the College under the BiSEP (Biotechnology Skill Enhancement Programme).

The Week Hamsa National Survey of higher education institutions has been consistently placing the College within 25 in Sciences and within 50 in all the other faculties.

The College has uploaded the data to AISHE, All India Survey on Higher Education by Department of Statistics, MHRD, Government of India.

In the National Swacchata Ranking, the College was awarded the THIRD Place in India in the Swacch Campus category.

UGC has recognized the College as a Centre for Research capacity Building by awarding its Scheme - STRIDE (Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India’s Developing Economy), Component-1. The College is proud to inform the public that more than 14 trans-disciplinary research projects have been sanctioned to the staff and students to conduct research on the broad area of the cultural diversity of the coastal districts of Karnataka.

The College prides itself in its eminent alumni who have been the torch-bearers and ambassadors of the vision and mission of the College. The following are some of the inspirational gems that the College offered to the world:

Justice K S Hegde

George Fernandes

Justice Santhosh Hegde

Dr Vinay Hegde

K V Kamath

Dr TMA Pai

K K Venugopal

Aravind Adiga

Ananth Agarwal

Dr Ullas Karanth

K L Rahul

The College launched its foray into advanced research and innovation activities with the establishment of the Applied Biology Laboratory started by an internationally acknowledged Jesuit Scientist and former Principal, Rev. Dr Leo D’Souza, SJ. The laboratory has been recognized as the research centre by Mangalore University and the NITK. Several PhD degrees have been awarded to scholars under the supervision of the research guides from the laboratory. The laboratory has been instrumental in evolving many species of flora through the tissue culture technology and one can find a lush tissue culture avenue produced in the lab in the campus.

The foundation and the pillars of any institution are its erudite and dedicated staff and vivacious and ever willing to learn student community. The College has been conscious of the level of the competence, scholarship and social commitment expected of the teachers so that they inspire the students to always reach for more. The recruitment process of faculty has been rigorous and the constant motivation to upgrade their professional and academic credentials has been instrumental in most of our staff acquiring Doctorate degrees, pursuing PhD degrees and qualifying the national/state level eligibility tests. The College firmly believes that the image and quality and brand of education imparted by the College depend largely upon the quality and research and human credentials of its faculty.

Undergraduate Programmes

The college has 7 undergraduate programmes. It provides Bachelors of Arts with 15 combinations, B.Sc with 16 combinations, B.Com with 8 batches and BBA with 4 batches including embedded and Vocational programmes like ACCA, CA and Industry Integrated, BCA with two batches, B. Voc. with 3 Programmes and BSW.

B.Sc. (Visual Communication), B.Sc. (Food Science), B.Com. (Apprenticeship /Internship Embedded) are the news courses yet to be approved by Mangalore University.

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), M.Com, M Com (Finance and Analytics); MBA and MCA.

The College takes pride in offering 5 Postgraduate Diploma and 3 Diploma Programmes along with more than 15 skill oriented certificate 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.

The lush green campus, spread across two sprawling centres is a veritable haven for young minds to pursue their education as well as conducive to learning and exploring the potential competencies and skills. The College has taken several initiatives to make the entire campus a zero carbon and zero waste site. The water harvesting projects, solar energy harvesting and bio-waste units have ensured the steady accomplishment of SDGs envisioned by the UNO.

Radio Sarang, the Community Radio of the College has been rendering yeomen service to the community in spreading awareness on the multitude of issues and concerns affecting people and has been consistently creating platforms for dialogue and debates with experts and government officials. A three-time National Award winning Community Radio has been a catalyst in building and empowering the community in general and the marginalized sections of the society in particular. Students are privileged to have opportunities to be a part of the various initiatives through internships and active engagement in the programmes.

The College is known for its immaculate credentials in the field of sports and games. Special initiatives have been launched while admissions to offer priority to students with great state/national and international achievements in sports and games. The College has been offering special fee concessions and scholarships to students with remarkable accolades in the field of sports and games. The vibrant sports activities that attract today’s youth premier Leagues in all the games have been planned every year in Cricket, Basketball, Football, Throw ball, Badminton thus the campus is teeming with sports activities all through the year.

The Jesuit brand of education believes in forming the overall personality of the students besides its strong thrust on academic excellence. The College has more than 50 co-curricular and extra-curricular club and associations to showcase their skills and talents in various fields. The performance and participation in these activities has been made mandatory and an integral part of the curricular aspects displayed in their attainment credentials. This initiative has facilitated several great individual and group accolades to them and to the College. The statutory associations such as the NCC, NSS, Red Cross, Heritage Club, Rover & Rangers have been adding enormous value to the graduate outcomes of the curriculum and the campus culture of the institution.

One of the non-negotiable graduate outcomes that the College insists on is the formation of the conscience that is driven by compassion. The College has its own NGO - Centre for Social Concern (CSC) guiding and coordinating the activities related to promoting the social concern among the students and staff. Each of the faculty is allotted 10-15 students as mentees to regularly engage in activities that create a sense of societal wellbeing and civic sense among the students and the society at large. Activities and initiatives like village adoption, solid waste segregation and management, enhancing eco-friendly spaces in and around the campus, collaborating with external NGOs and consortia of like-minded persons and organizations have facilitated deep engagement in the health and wellbeing of the civil society. In this context it is pertinent to mention one of the highlights of brand Aloysian education is Sahaaya, the voluntary social service and outreach project of the College. The initiative has received great admiration by all the stakeholders. Students are mapped according to their innate talents and skills; they are motivated to utilize them to the betterment of the society. This initiative has been appreciated for social outreach and regular interventions launched by the College towards sensitizing the staff and students to the burning and immediate issues and concerns of the immediate society. The College feels proud to say that several alumni of the College have joined as well as established NGOs and have been volunteering and working with the UN initiatives as volunteers and employees.

Having a student-strength of more than 7,000, St Aloysius College (Autonomous) attracts and beckons a diverse ensemble of cultural, linguistic, regional, ethnic and religious diversity making it a veritable microcosm of India. In this context, the approach of the College has been one of ‘celebrating diversities and differences’ and this value has been constantly driven home during the inter-religious prayers, retreats and celebrations of festivals. All the religious festivals like Dewali, Christmas, Eid and other major occasions are meaningfully observed in the campus with gaeity and fervour. Respect for the ‘other’ has been the bedrock of the Aloysian tradition. More than 50 MoUs entered into by the College with National and International institutions of eminence holding staff and student exchange programmes has ensured global exposure to staff and students. The international students who visit the campus for various programmes have great appreciation for the campus culture, value system and innovative pedagogical practices employed by the College. Hence students from all sections of the society have been eager to be a part of this great ‘tradition of traditions’ as Late APJ Abdul Kalam referred to the Jesuit brand of education of which, he was himself a product.

An institution started 141 years ago with its humble beginnings but always keeping its eyes firmly fixed on EXCELLENCE is on the threshold of being declared a deemed to be university. Founded with the noble idea of empowering the youth of this part of India, today, the College has grown like an enormous tree giving shelter to thousands of young men and women and offering them to the nation and to the world as enlightened and proactive global citizens shining with the Aloysian spark and enkindling the same fire to make a difference in the world.