Christ University Gears up for Academic Year 2011-12 Admissions

By Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Dec 25: Ironical it may be but India’s first Catholic University, the Bangalore-based Christ University, is gearing up and making a special effort to woo NRI and foreign students to its campus in a big way at a time when foreign educational institutions are making a beeline for establishing themselves in the country. 

Students from foreign countries, including some of the most advanced countries like USA, UK, France, Germany or Australia, have always been part and parcel of this prestigious educational institution in India almost since its inception but in a limited way. 

Under the dynamic and visionary leadership of its soft-spoken Vice Chancellor Dr (Fr) Thomas C Mathew, the Christ University is keen emerging as a world class educational institution not only in terms of the students drawn from different parts of the world but also providing facilities that are available in the best of the educational institutions in the world. Qualified teaching staff with exposure to international standards and practices is one of the key areas.

A special thrust of the new focus is wooing wards of NRI parents, who are looking for education of international standards in an atmosphere and orientation of Indian cultural ethos for their children unlike the completely alien environment or cultural background available in the elite educational institutions of US, UK or Europe, which is borne out by the fact that the Christ University is able to attract as many as 270 students from 37 different countries as on August 1, 2010. The number can surely be expected to go up in 2011 too.

Indian students will continue to be mainstay

With admissions for the academic year 2011-12 starting from June 13, 2011, already open, Christ University has started a special campaign to attract students of NRI parents settled or working in the Middle Eastern or European countries. It has set an exclusive international office to look after the admission procedures, needs, special problems and welfare of all NRI and foreign students since the last two years.

"When we strive for excellence and want Christ University to become a brand name for quality education with the highest academic standards, it is but natural that NRI and other foreign students must enroll themselves as that will add to the international flavour But Indian students will continue to be our mainstay,” said Fr Mathew in an exclusive interview with Daijiworld.

The Vice Chancellor, however, is firmly committed to fulfilling its mission: Excellence and Service. ``We are committed to our motto of providing holistic education through the development of intellectual competence, personal, inter-personal and societal skills. We want all our students irrespective of their nationality to grow and prosper in an environment of religious harmony and secularism, which are the core values the country,” said Fr Thomas Mathew. He explained that students from poorer sections are given a wide range of incentives, concessions and facilities to come up in life.

The Centre for Social Responsibility (CSR) selects deserving students from all over the country and looks after their requirements. The total outlay on the CSR exceeds Rs 30 crore and the entire expenditure is handled in a systematic manner. Incidentally, the Christ University has virtually taken upon itself the responsibility of looking after the educational needs of children of Rajendranagar slum in the city. This and other activities of the Christ University essentially sums up the life, work and mission of Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara, the pioneer of innovative education and social reformer, who founded the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) in 1831 and runs the Christ University.  Christ University, Bangalore, an affiliated and autonomous college under Bangalore University till 2008, was founded in July 1969 by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), the first indigenous Catholic religious congregation of India. From its humble beginning, it was conferred autonomy by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on October 7, 2004, and became the first college in South India to be reaccredited with A+ by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in May 2005 and was soon identified by UGC as an Institution with Potential for Excellence in June 2006. The Union Human Resources Development Ministry declared Christ College as a Deemed to be University as Christ University on July 22, 2008 under the UGC Act 1956.

96 courses/full-time programmes; 11000 students

For roughly 3000 seats, the institution attracts the largest number of inquiries and applications for admissions among all colleges in Bangalore with over 15,000 applications received last year. The total student population in the Christ University is a little over 8,500 and with the students at the pre-university and Kengeri campus, the total Christite student population is around 11,000, which is quite an impressive figure.

Today, this premier educational institution in Bangalore, which has earned name and fame all over the country, offers a wide range of as many as 96 courses/full time programmes at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels during the ensuing academic year.

Seven new innovative courses are proposed to be started during this academic year including 5-year Integrated B.Tech-MBA and B.Tech with M.Tech dual degree programme, MBA in Hospitality Management, MA in Education, M.Tech in Computer Science Engineering, M.Tech in Communication Systems and M.Phil in Law. Curriculum of all existing undergraduate and postgraduate courses is further updated and undergraduate honours courses are available in Economics, Psychology, English, Computer Science, Mathematics and Commerce.

An interesting feature in the Christ University is the introduction of special courses to help students to gain English language proficiency for the benefit of international students coming from non-English speaking countries as all the courses will be conducted only in the English medium.

International Collaborations

International Twinning and credit transfer programmes with overseas universities are further strengthened and made broad based. From the next academic year onwards students enrolling in almost all of the Christ University’s undergraduate courses have the option to complete the final year of their courses in UK universities like Liverpool Hope, Shefield Hallam and Swansea.

``This will enable Christ University students to get the most coveted degrees from some of the prestigious foreign universities with a mere one-year study abroad and thereby improve their career prospects,” explained Joe Lobo, Director, International Relations.  Foreign or NRI students can acquire global standard higher education at the Christ University, Bangalore, for as little as one-fourth or one-fifth of the cost of studying in American or European Universities.

What makes studying in Christ University an attractive proposition for the Indian, NRI and foreign students is its large number of international collaborations with several top American and European Universities for mutual transfer of credits and have twinning partnership and student exchange programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels giving it an international dimension and a global status. Western Michigan University (USA), Griffith University (Australia),Swansea University (UK), Universities Study Abroad Consortium(USA),Lille Catholic University(France),University of Applied Sciences, Wurzburg-Sweinfurt (Germany), Liverpool Hope University(UK) and Virginia Commonwealth University(USA) are some of the universities having such bilateral arrangements with the Christ University.

The Department of Publications publishes four by-annual journals , namely, ARTHA-Journal of Social Sciences, MAPANA-Journal of Sciences, USHUS-Journal of Business Management and ATNA-Journal of Tourism Studies in which chosen research articles by faculty members and research associates, scientific papers, review articles etc are published. The aim is to provide the best of higher education at affordable costs to deserving students irrespective of caste, creed or nationality.

World-class facilities

Consistent efforts are made by all concerned to constantly improve the standards to world class levels while keeping the costs affordable for all.  Well-maintained gardens and buildings, air-conditioned Seminar and Conference halls, a 2000-seater fully-equipped auditorium, which is perhaps the largest for any educational institution in the country, health club, two large cafeterias with a total seating capacity of more than 1000, kiosks and books-stall, girls hostel are among the facilities provided to the students in campus.

A new and even more spacious campus is ready at Kengeri, about 27 kms from the City Campus. The Christ Residential Pre-University College, Christ University College of Engineering and a few additional batches of M.B.A. course are housed there at present.  Latest laboratory and computer instruments, audio-visual equipments and other educational aides and communication systems are acquired on a regular basis to keep the University up-to-date with technological innovations.

Every staff and student is given a username and password to streamline internet usage through the six mbps leased-line connection in the Campus. All staff and students are also provided with email-ids with a capacity of 6GB each through the University web mail system: www.christuniversity.in.

A very active Centre for Career Guidance and Placements with a network of 22 faculty coordinators and placement officers arranges for campus placements for all students registering for placements. The percentage of job placements is as high as 80 to 100% depending on the courses studied. Significantly, not just the MBA, BBM or M.Tech or B.Tech, BE degree streams but even undergraduates opting for B.A., B.Com, B.Sc. courses are also benefitted to a large extent by the job placement system with a large number of leading companies regularly conducting their fresh recruitments.

Ranked among the country’s best

The Christ University has been ranked among the best in the country in academic excellence. The City Campus of the University was selected for the Best Campus Award by the Bangalore Urban Art Commission for four consecutive years from 1996 to 2000, various national level surveys and ratings have consistently placed it among the best ten institutions in the country.

The India Today-AC Nielsen-ORG-MARG’s annual survey of the best colleges in the country during the year 2010 has rated Christ University as the best in Bangalore in all the three streams of Arts, Commerce and Science. It is also ranked as being 8th, 5th and 7th best among all Indian colleges in the Arts, Commerce and Science streams respectively. 

The Vice Chancellor Dr (Fr) Thomas C Mathew firmly believes that Christ University has scope for further growth and attain higher standards of excellence. He, however, believes that the controversy over the deemed university status, which is presently before the Supreme Court, would be resolved without any serious problems. ``Yes, we were really shaken when the Centre moved to withdraw the deemed university status of as many as 44 universities in the country. But we are confident that the issue will be resolved without any serious damage as even some of the perceived shortcomings have been overcome,” the Vice Chancellor explained.