St. Joseph’s College seeks deemed university status

The Society of Jesus that manages St. Joseph's College here placed its wish to upgrade the institution, one of the oldest in the country, into a deemed to be university before the Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, during the inaugural of 175th year (Dodransbicentennial) celebrations.

The college looks forward to the protection of service of the faculty members of aided sections and its minority status from the MHRD for realising the wish, Rev. Fr. Danis Ponniah, Provincial, Jesuit Madurai Province, and Chairman, St. Joseph's Society, said directing his request to the HRD Minister, the chief guest for the occasion.

In pursuit of global standards, the institution also looks for MHRD’s support for renovating buildings, upgrading instrumentation centres, switching over to solar energy, establishing an academic staff college, digitising intellectual resources and creating an entrepreneurship centre, Fr. Danis Ponniah said.

The HRD Minister said in his address that the college that has been enjoying academic freedom for long by virtue of its autonomy was best placed to transform into a deemed university. He called upon the management to leverage the strengths of industry and alumni.

Mr. Javadekar, who earlier inaugurated the renovated museum funded by the University Grants Commission, lauded the college for its uniqueness of being the only institution in the State to be granted the Special Heritage Status, and its collection of 1.7 lakh titles at its library.

Mr. Javadekar spoke about the initiatives taken to improve the quality of education at the levels of school and higher education. Quality of education was of foremost concern in the 900 universities and over 40,000 colleges. Education must serve the real purpose of building character, value, ethos, capacity, competency and calibre of learners, he said.

The HRD Minister handed over the first copy of the Dodransbicentennial Event Souvenir to Collector K. Rajamani and first copy of the book titled ‘Museum of natural history in St. Joseph’s Institutions - 175 years’ to Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University P. Manisankar. The Provincial received the second book, ‘Flowering plants.’

Mr. Javadekar later visited the classroom and laboratory in the Physics department where the late president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam studied.

In his welcome address, Rev. Fr. Leonard Fernando, College Rector and Vice-Chairman, St. Joseph’ s Society, enumerated the factors contributing to quality education at the institution. Chennai Mission Superior Rev. Fr. Jebamalai Raja and Principal Rev. Fr. M. Arockiasamy Xavier offered felicitations.

Later in the day, the inaugural civic function was addressed by illustrious alumni: Vellamandi N. Natarajan, Tourism Minister; Rev. Fr. Jebamalai Raja; S. Ramesh, Chairman, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs; S. Rangarajan, Chief Technology Officer, Yazmi, USA; A. Amalraj, Commissioner of Police, Tiruchi City; and Arockia Rajeev, Arjuna awardee and silver medalist in the recent Asian Games.

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