Maharaja's College, Ernakulam

Not to be confused with Maharaja's College, Mysore.
Maharaja's College, Ernakulam
മഹാരാജാസ് കോളേജ്, എറണാകുളം

Logo of Maharaja's College
Type Public
Established 1875
Affiliation Government
Principal Smt.Beena N L
Academic staff
 182
Administrative staff
 65
Location Ernakulam, Kerala, India
9°58′16″N 76°16′52″E / 9.971°N 76.281°E / 9.971; 76.281Coordinates: 9°58′16″N 76°16′52″E / 9.971°N 76.281°E / 9.971; 76.281
Sports Athletics
Soccer
Cricket
Wrestling
Nickname Maharajas
Affiliations Mahatma Gandhi University, UGC
Website https://www.maharajas.ac.in

The Maharaja's College is an Indian government college of higher education located in Ernakulam, Kerala, India. Located in the heart of the city Kochi, it is spread over a campus of 25 acres (100,000 m2) on the banks of Vembanad Lake. Blanketed by tall and rare species of trees, its campus features a mix of old and modern architecture and covers a total area of 19,525 m², providing infrastructural facilities for the 19 departments of the college.

History

The front gate of Maharaja's College, Ernakulam

This multidisciplinary centre of higher learning had its humble beginnings as a single room English school started by the Royal Kingdom of Cochin in 1845 "to impart such instruction to the students as would enable them to converse with Englishmen without the aid of an interpreter". The school was upgraded to a college in 1875 and in June 1925 the college acquired its present name. The college provided instruction in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, History and Economics; it was affiliated with Madras University. At that time there were two hostels and physical education, literary and science associations functioning in full swing. Sir C. V. Raman and Dr S. Radhakrishnan were among the speakers at the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1925.

The first PG course was started in 1947 in the Department of Chemistry, which already had research facilities holding to M.Sc and Ph.D. Following the integration of Cochin and Travancore states, the college was transferred from Madras to Travancore University in 1949. The student body grew from 500 in 1925 to 2,802 in 1998; the teaching faculty saw a parallel increase from 21 to 195. The government of Kerala recognised it as a Centre of Excellence in the state and the University Grants Commission awarded the College with Potential for Excellence (CPE) status based on the NAAC Accreditation results. In 2014, UGC awarded Autonomous status to the college.

The green campus that acts as the lungs of the city.

Library

The view from the oldest part of the college.

The college library is 135 years old and has a collection of nearly one lakh (hundred thousand) books, including a prestigious collection of rare literature books. The reference section itself has 2000 books. However, lack of space is one of the vexing problems of the library. A reference and information section, inter-library networking and Internet facility are some of the immediate requirements of the library.

College grounds

The facilities available for sports activities include a 400-meter synthetic track, a football field-cum-cricket ground, a stadium pavilion with a capacity of 25,000 people, and courts for games like hockey, volleyball, basketball, kho-kho, kabady, and ball badminton. Facilities are available for indoor games like table-tennis, carom, chess, wrestling, weightlifting and power lifting.

Staff and students co-operative society

The Maharaja's College staff and students co-operative society Ltd. no. 207, functioning on the campus, aims at promoting the spirit of cooperation and independence among its members. The society runs a bookshop in which textbooks and notebooks and various study materials are made available for students. It also houses a photocopying machine where photocopying is done at a reduced rate.

Career guidance cell

A career guidance centre was started on the college campus in 1994, with a view to enable the students to manage themselves and to provide personal counseling on environment and qualifications for entry into various careers. In spite of the fact that the centre is still in its infancy and has few infrastructural facilities, it could arrange campus interviews for Cochin Maintenance Centre, NITT and Eureka Forbes. Many lectures on career opportunities are arranged on a regular basis by the centre.

Hostels

Old building that houses the Principal's Office at Maharaja's College

The Maharaja's College Rama Varma hostels include the new hostel for men and the ladies' hostel. The former has 90 rooms with a capacity of 240 students and two tutors; the latter has facilities for only 104 students and one tutor. Nowadays, the demand for accommodation in the ladies' hostel is greater than the availability due to the increase in the number of girl students. To remedy this situation, a concrete proposal for a women's hostel has been submitted to UGC during the IX plan.

Old Students Association

An Old Students Association (OSA) formed in 1925 still functions on the college campus and its members have been involved in many of the activities of the college, such as arranging lectures by eminent personalities and awarding prizes to rank holders. It has also played an instrumental role in initiating the ongoing restoration work of the College

Entrance of the college.

Courses

The college conducts 19 degree courses, 21 postgraduate courses and 11 doctorate programmes. The degree courses are:

The P.G. courses are:

Maharaja's also offers PhD programmes under the departments of Arabic, Chemistry, Economics, English, Hindi, Malayalam, Philosophy, Physics, Politics, Sanskrit and Zoology.

Research Programmes

Departments of Physics,Chemistry, Zoology, Economics, Politics, Philosophy, Arabic, English, Hindi, Malayalam and Sanskrit are approved Research Centres of M.G. University. Presently, there are 60 approved research guides supervising the research programmes and 123 research scholars are currently doing research work.

The astronomy club of the college is well equipped to watch all celestial events

A view of the Marine Drive from the Maharaja's Campus.

Milestones in history

A panoramic view of the rear entrance of the college.

Notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ "Bio-Data of Professor K.S. Radhakrishnan". Indian Council of Philosophical Research. 2016. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
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