Nirmala College For Women, Coimbatore

About Nirmala College For Women, Coimbatore

Nirmala College for Women, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, South India managed by the Franciscan Sisters of the Presentation of Mary, an Order, which was founded by Rev Fr Joseph Louis Ravel, with the primary objective of providing university education in a Christian atmosphere for deserving women students, and those belonging to the Catholic community. Although this college is meant primarily for Catholics, it admits other students irrespective of caste and creed. Nirmala College for Women, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, South India managed by the Franciscan Sisters of the Presentation of Mary, an Order, which was founded by Rev Fr Joseph Louis Ravel, with the primary objective of providing university education in a Christian atmosphere for deserving women students, and those belonging to the Catholic community.Nirmala College for Women, situated in Red fields, Coimbatore – 18 is run by the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Presentation of Mary.

The college had its humble beginnings as a second grade college in the year 1948. The founder Rt.Rev.Msgr.Oubagaraswamy , D.D., the Bishop of Coimbatore, with a missionary zeal and farsighted vision worked to contribute his best to the tremendous task of developing women's education for fuller development of free India. He sent a proposal to the university of Madras requesting permission for the Coimbatore Diocese to start a College for women in Coimbatore. Thus Nirmala College came into being on the first of July 1948. The college has now emerged as one of the premier institutions of learning, propagating higher values of education and learning, with hopes and dreams to achieve her goal.

Nirmala College for Women,Coimbatore is a government-aided college, affiliated to Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. It is fifty-seven years young, and imparts dedicated service to its students, offering both formal and non-formal education, especially to the poorer section of society . It is partially a residential institution, affiliated to Madras University till 1981, and from then till date to Bharathiar University , Coimbatore. The college is under the Management of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Presentation of Mary (F.S.P.M). This Congregation was founded by Rev.Fr. Joseph Louis Ravel, a missionary of the Paris Foreign Mission Society. This Society was the pioneer of evangelization in Kongunadu . Rev.Fr. Joseph Louis Ravel was commited to the cause of children and women’s education for he believed that illiteracy was the basic reason for the deplorable condition of society. Thus he founded the congregation on the 21st of November 1853 with three native village women to help women face the challenges of life with the weapon called “Education”. He wanted this modest community to be “a living teaching of the great law of charity”,the true foundation and the beautiful summary of our holy religion .

Subsequently many primary schools were established in remote villages to educate poor children . Fr. Ravel guided the young Congregation as Director for twenty-eight years and was blessed to see a few schools –one Technical School, one Home for Children and five houses before he died on 31 st January 1881.The Sisters of this Congregation live according to the expectations of the Church and commit themselves to be living witnesses of Charity, especially through their academic institutions, having as their model, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St.Francis of Assisi.The Sisters continue to work to fulfill the visionary dreams of Rev. Fr. Ravel through their educational institutions, which are training the youth for life. An estimated number of 95,000 students in more than 100 institutions are trained by the Presentation Sisters and by the Staff to face the challenges of the technological world of the third and new millennium.The college magazine as always been an integral; articulate voice of the college’s growth, ambience and academic pulse over the years. Unfailingly published over a period of 40years, the `Old Man of the Sea’ bagged the prestigious Best College Magazine Award 2002, awarded by the Academic Council, Bharathiar University, a cash award of Rs. 3000/- awarded in the presence of NAAC. The Divodhaya, an inter-religious center also conferred on Nirmala College, the Best College Magazine Award, 2001-2004.

Goals
Nirmala College for Women aims to equip young women with quality education, life skills, personal skills and social skills that ensure productivity and confidence to take their rightful place in all areas of life, public and private.

Objectives:
In pursuit of this goal, Nirmala College for Women seeks
To nurture in the students intellectual curiosity, a quest for knowledge and the ability to translate their knowledge to creative use.
To develop in the students a capacity to identify their own potential and form a holistic personality.
To mould the students into morally upright and spiritually enlightened human beings.
To sensitize students to be socially committed, to awaken their conscience and enable them to emerge as active agents of social change
To ever promote National Integration.