St Marys College, Tuticorin

About St Marys College, Tuticorin

St. Mary's College Tuticorin, Autonomous is offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science courses. College vision is to make young women agents of an egalitarian society through liberative education.

St. Mary’s college (Autonomous), a premier institution of higher education, founded by the Congregation of Mother of Sorrows in the year 1948, plays a significant role in shaping the destiny of innumerable young coastal women in and around Thoothukudi. Enhancing human dignity by empowering the women in and around the coastal areas of Thoothukudi has been its main concern. Started primarily to benefit the catholic minority, the college strives hard to reach out to the society, mostly identified as economically backward and socially underprivileged. Slow and steady progress marked the growth of the college and higher education for women gained momentum. The strong back up of committed service rendered by the teaching faculty and supportive staff has brought many laurels to our institution. Quality initiative, Quality sustenance and Quality enhancement are the keywords of every activity.

St. Mary’s college lives upto the founders’ lofty vision of making young women as agents of an egalitarian society through liberative education. The pursuit of our institution is to channelise fruitfully the potentials of the young generation and help them experience a gratifying growth in their personality and career. We are proud that the college today is equipped with the best of faculty, infrastructure and systems to support its mission to teach and train women to be emotionally balanced, morally upright, spiritually integrated, socially sensitive and globally competitive. The institution imparts an education that promises an integral growth of knowledge, skills and values, thus promoting an environment of composite culture and religious harmony in the campus.

The college, affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, has attained Autonomous Status in the year 2009. Recognizing this great potential within the campus, the NAAC has awarded ‘A’ grade to our institution in 2013, and now we are marching towards achieving excellence. Today, the institution has grown tall and wide to offer 17 undergraduate programmes (Aided: 10; Self-Supporting:7), 12 postgraduate programmes (Aided: 5; Self-Supporting:7), and 6 M.Phil. Programmes. Six departments have been upgraded as Research Centers. At present, 1811 students are in the regular stream and 1400 students are enrolled in the Self Supporting Courses with the faculty strength of 86 permanent and 12 Management in regular stream and 75 in Self Supporting Stream. Among them 54 are Ph.D. holders and 12 are currently working on their doctoral theses. 18 faculty members from management staff are Ph.D holders. Learning is made more informative, interactive and collaborative with efficient and effective ICT enabled teaching. 20 faculty members are approved as Research Guides of M.S.University, Tirunelveli. There are 54 Ph.D. scholars doing their doctoral research.

Research culture is promoted in upgraded research centres viz., Botany, Zoology, History, Commerce, English and Mathematics. The research centres funded by DST-FIST, to enhance the existing infrastructure, provide a conducive atmosphere for research activities. The Research ambience in the campus is furthered by the Library subscribed to a digital library of 3684 journals through N-List and INFLIBNET. Internet connection provided to all departments helps the research scholars to access e-journals.

With the implementation of autonomy, the institution has been able to design its own curricula and evaluation system. The flexibility and space provided by autonomy has paved way for widening our academic arena with external experts and representatives from the industry in our curriculum designing exercise. The College has opted for Choice Based Credit System for the students admitted in UG and PG programmes from 2009 onwards. The CBCS provides ample scope for academic innovation. The academic activities of all disciplines are grouped into four Schools of Excellence to augment research, design pioneering courses, enable efficient teaching, and facilitate effective learning. Transfer of knowledge between schools enables the learners to perceive and explore various avenues of research and to empower the student community to face the global demands of the 21st century.

A holistic education with an overall personality development is ensured through involving students in academic, curricular and co-curricular activities. Students participate in internship programmes, paper presentations, and extra-curricular activities. Most of the activities are framed involving mass participation of students in activities, in the Fine Arts, Sports, festival celebrations and rallies. Spiritual life and holistic growth is ensured to a larger extent within the campus both in the learning and living environment - the hostel. The Student Counselling forum leads the students in a regular one to one counselling along with Life Skill Training Programme and a holistic mass counselling. These activities have increased the morale of students.

The College organizes training in Soft-Skills and Communicative English, which are two major determinants of employability. Hence, employability, innovation and research aspects are given due considerations while designing and developing the curriculum. In this context, the college also emphasises and prioritises the thrust of value system within its curriculum, as it is the only means of producing enriched personalities.

Reforms such as online tests, online mark entry, issue of hall tickets with photo identity, publication of results online within 21 days after completion of the examination are adopted for systematized conduct of examination. The Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) endeavours to optimize the integration of modern methods of teaching, learning and evaluation. Some of the faculty members are funded by UGC, TNSCST and other agencies to widen research activities. The college also offers an innovative PG course viz., Master of Human Resource Management (MHRM), sponsored by the UGC. It also has the credit of receiving DST-FIST fund and financial support from UGC for the construction of Indoor stadium, Gymnasium, Equal Opportunity Center and 100 Bedded Sports Hostel. The activities of various clubs and forums are effectively grouped under Eight Centres of Excellence to promote the skills of the students. The co-curricular activities viz., National Cadet Corps (NCC) wing functions to instill discipline and patriotism to the country, while National Social Service (NSS) units provide an awareness of the social issues and responsibility to uplift the society. Awareness of social issues is created through the outreach activity TOUCH (Towards Upliftment and Community Healing). All the second year UG students participate in the programme which is an integral part of the curriculum.

Besides academics, the college aims at all-round development of students especially in sports. It has infrastructure facilities for a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities. The large playground comprises of Clay courts for Volley Ball, Kho-Kho, Kabaddi and Indoor stadium for Basket Ball, Ball Badminton and Table Tennis. We are fully equipped to conduct athletic events such as hurdles race, high jump, long jump, shot put and javelin throw. In Sports and games the college has made a landmark achievement by retaining the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University overall trophy 25 times consecutively. Our college has contributed much to the sports history of MS University of Tamil Nadu.

Extensive strides have been taken in Academics, Research, Curricular, Co-curricular, Ethical Education and Outreach Activities towards sustaining its growth as a competent institution. For the past 68 years, it has groomed generations of young women through its conscious efforts and has enlivened the vision of its pioneers by imparting value conscious integrated education to the young women ensuring their continual growth.