Maharaja's College

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Maharaja's College Ernakulam
Motto	Vidyayamruthamasnuthe (Sanskrit)- taken from the Vedas and means Knowledge
Established	1875
Type	Govt. Educational Institution
Principal	Prof. U.A. Mohandas
Location	Ernakulam, Kochi, Kerala, INDIA
Affiliations	M.G. University, Kerala
Website	MCE Home

The Maharaja's College, Ernakulam mainland, is one of the best and biggest centres of learning and higher education in the state of Kerala. Though located in the heart of Cochin city, it is spread over a campus of 10 acres (40,000 m²) on the banks of Vembanad Lake. Blanketed by tall and rare species of trees, its buildings are structures that speak of very old as well as modern architectural archetypes and cover a total area of 19,525 m². This house provides infrastructure facilities for the 19 departments of the college.

History

This multidisciplinary centre of higher learning had its humble beginnings as a single room English school started by 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 into a college in 1875 and in June 1925 the college got its present name. It was raised to a first grade college providing instructions in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, History and Economics and affiliated to 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 on the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1925

The first PG course was started in 1947 in the department of Chemistry that 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 further growth and development by way of student strength and diversification of courses were so rapid that the maintenance of steady equilibrium became difficult. The student strength rose from 500 in 1925 to 2802 in 1998 and the teaching faculty also followed a parallel increase from 21 to 195.

Library

The college library is 125 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. The construction of a three-storied library complex will be starting soon^[when?] with UGC assistance. A reference and information section, inter-library networking and Internet facility are some of the immediate requirements of the library.

College ground

The facilities available for sports activities include a 400-meter synthetic track, football court cum cricket ground, stadium pavilion with a capacity of 25,000 people, courts for games like hockey, volleyball, basketball, kho-kho, kabady, ball badminton etc. In addition 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 in the campus, aims at promoting the spirit of co-operation and independence among the members. The society is running a bookshop in which textbooks and note books and all kinds of 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 in the college campus in 1994, with a view to enable the students to manage themselves and to provide personal counselling on environment and qualifications for entry into career. In spite of the fact that the centre is still in its infancy and has little infra structural facilities, it could arrange campus interviews for Cochin Maintenance Centre, NITT and Eureka Forbes. In addition many, lectures on career opportunities are being arranged on a regular basis by the centre.

Hostels

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 and the latter has facilities for only 104 students and one tutor. Nowadays, the demand for accommodation in the ladies hostel is more than availability due to increase in the number of girl students. To tide over 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) that was formed as early as 1925, still functions in the college campus and its members have been involved in many of the activities of the college, arranging lectures by eminent personalities, awarding prizes to rank holders etc. being only a few. It has also played an instrumental role in initiating the ongoing restoration work in the campus.

For more details refer Maharaja's Old students Association Web site http://www.mcosa.org Maharaja's College, Ernakulam - http://www.maharajascollege.com

Courses offered

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

• B.A. in English, Malayalam, Arabic, Hindi, Sanskrit, Music, Economics, Politics, Philosophy, History, and Islamic History;

• B.Sc. in Botany, Chemistry, Chemistry (with Environment and Water Management as vocational subjects), Mathematics, Physics, Physics (with instrumentation as vocational subject), Zoology

• B.Com.(with Computer Applications)

The P.G. courses are

• M.A. in Arabic, English, Hindi, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Economics, Politics, Philosophy, History, Islamic History;

• M.Sc. in Botany, Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Applied Chemistry (Oils , Fats and Aromatics), Analytical Chemistry (Pharmaceutical Chemistry) , Mathematics, Physics (Theoretical Physics), Physics (Electronics), Statistics and Zoology.

Maharajas also offers Ph.D. programmes under the departments of Arabic, Botany, Chemistry, Economics, English, Hindi, Malayalam, Music, Philosophy, Physics and Sanskrit.

Magneto optics Lab

Department of Physics, Maharaja's College, Ernakulam.

Department of Physics, Maharaja's College is an approved Research Centre of M.G University since 1991 onwards. Presently, there are 9 approved research guides supervising the research programmes. Now 9 Research scholars are doing research work.

The thrust areas of research are Material Science, Nano-magnetic Materials, Magneto-optics, Rubber Ferrite Composites, Luminescence, Laser optics, Molecular vibrational spectroscopy, Theoretical Physics, Nonlinear physics, Quantum Computing, and Astrophysics.

Milestones in history

• 1875 - The Cochin Rajas Elementary school started by Cochin Sarkar is upgraded into a college. Mr. A.F. Sealy, M.A. took charge as the first principal. It was Mr. Sealy who had designed the building and hence the name Sealy block. F.A. (First examination in Arts) course started.
• 1908 - Intermediate course started
• 1909 - Two separate hostels started - one for Hindu students and another for Christian students
• 1910 - First college magazine published - on the occasion of the 60th birthday of the Cochin Maharaja, Sir Sri Rama Varma.
• 1925 - Golden Jubilee. Sir C.V. Raman and Dr. S. Radhakrishnan visited the college. The college got its present name - "Maharajas College". The college was raised to a first grade college providing instructions in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, History and Economics affiliated to Madras University. Old Students Association formed.
• 1930 - Three new blocks added to the college. 15-acre (61,000 m²) plot donated to the college - Maharajas ground established.
• 1935 - Diamond Jubily. B. Sc. Courses in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Zoology started.
• 1947 - B. Sc. Botany started. Year of India's independence. Student's political activities reached new peaks. Student activists hoisted Indian national flag in the Campus and got brutally beaten up by the royal police.

• 1948 - The department of Chemistry that already had research facility started the first P.G. course.

• 1949 - Following the integration of Travancore and Cochin states, the college is transferred from Madras University toTravancore University.
• 1951 - New courses - B.A. (Hons.), M.A. Economics, B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc. Mathematics.
• 1954 - New course - M.Sc. Applied Chemistry.
• 1956 - Pre University course started. M.A. Malayalam and M.A. English started.
• 1957 - The College comes under Kerala University. M.Sc. Physics started.
• 1959 - New courses - B.A.Sanskrit, M.A. History, M.A. Hindi, M.Sc Zoology.
• 1964 - Pre University Course metamorphed into Pre Degree course. New courses - B.A. Politics, B.A. Philosophy
• 1968 - New courses - B.A.English, B.A. Islamic History, B.A. Arabic
• 1971 - New courses - M.A. Philosophy, M.A. politics.
• 1975 - Centennial - completed 100 years - celebrations in great style with science exhibitions, seminars, symposia etc.
• 1977 - New Centenary Auditorium inaugurated.
• 1979 - New course - M.A. Arabic.
• 1981 - New courses - M.A. Islamic History.
• 1983 - Affiliation changed to newly formed Mahatma Gandhi University.
• 1990 - Maharajas College declared Centre of Excellence. Departments of Chemistry, Hindi, Malayalam and Physics recognised as research centres for research towards Ph. D, under Mahatma Gandhi University.
• 1993 - Maharajas won overall championship of the Mahatma Gandhi University youth festival. A feat to be repeated in 1994, 1995, 1998 and 2000.
• 1995 - New course - M.Sc. Statistics.
• 1996 - New courses - B.Sc. Physics - Instrumentation and B.Sc. Environment and Water Management.
• 1997 - R. Shankar Award for the best Government College presented to Maharajas.
• 1998 - New course - B. A. Music
• 1999 - New course - B. Com. with Computer Applications.
• 2000 - Completes 125 glorious years. Accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council. Maharajas goes online.
• 2006 - Re-accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council at A - level.
• 2007 - Maharajas College Ground gets synthetic tracks for conducting international athletic events. Students of the college win overall championship of the Mahatma Gandhi University Silver Jubilee youth festival.
• 2009 - Edusat facility installed. Becomes part of Ernakulam cluster of colleges.

Online courses

Maharajas, will be offering a few online courses shortly.

References

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External links

• Maharaja's College Official Website - http://maharajascollege.in
• Maharaja's College Old Students Association Website - http://www.mcosa.org