Swearing by Student Satisfaction

Swearing by Student Satisfaction

Not many institutions in Bangalore can boast of a well-groomed, organised and eco-friendly campus. Christ University housed on a 25-acre land, is a place where students can study or spend leisure time and be one with the environment. Established in 1969 as Christ College, run by Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, the University Grants Commission formally recognised the institution in 1972. It was in 2008 that it received the coveted deemed university status, paving way to be called Christ University.

The deemed university status has improved many things at Christ, especially the academic aspects, says Fr Abraham Vettiyankal, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the university. “MPhil, PhD and more research programmes have been added and the existing research orientation has changed. We have revised our syllabi. Orientation programmes are conducted each year for lecturers to instill values in students to go beyond textbooks and get involved in research,” he explains.

He says that a peculiar facet of the syllabus followed by the university is its renewable nature. “Various departments come together and decide on the curriculum along with industry professionals. A lot of research papers, books, newsletters, journals and projects have materialised. Teaching methodology has changed in terms of giving students assignments, internships, a library, projects and events to organise.”

Courses

Christ University offers UG programmes in journalism, psychology, English, performing arts, theatre studies, communication and media, civil engineering, commerce, biotechnology, chemistry and zoology among others. Postgraduate courses include MBA, financial management, international studies, communication, technology, MPhil (16 options) and PhD (22 choices). Two new courses — MA in international studies and a BTech in automobile engineering have been started.

Says Indira Menon, a first-year BCom student on their honours course: “I chose Christ because it was the only university in Bangalore that offered a BCom honours. The course requires us to finish two certificate courses in four semesters; managing many things has taught me to multi-task. Besides, we have an amazing campus, a good study culture and space for holistic development.”

Facilities

To keep up with the needs of students, the campus on the busy Hosur Road houses well-equipped labs, air-conditioned seminar halls, panel rooms, conference halls, auditoriums, a health centre, kiosks, hostel facility for girls, libraries and much more. There is a football/cricket ground, a basketball court and other sports facilities as well. The automated library system has a wide range of academic resources in the form of books, periodicals, project reports, audio/video resources and question banks. At present, there are a total of 1,22,707 books with 33, 227 under the reference section. “With the automated system, students can even create online accounts and access journals and other reference material. We provide students with ERP and SAP and this facility is given only in Christ University and nowhere else,” Fr Vettiyankal says. We also find that Moodle, an online portal to submit assignments and share notes is very popular with the students. Moodle also allows them to check upcoming events of the university.

Assessment

The university has an enrollment of 13,000 students in its Hosur Road campus and about 2,000 at the Kengeri campus that houses the Faculty of Engineering and Institute of Management. The total staff strength comes to 550. They follow an internal assessment method known as Continuous Internal Assessment, which awards 50 per cent marks. Of this, 10 per cent marks are earmarked for assignments, 10 per cent for presentation/seminars, 25 per cent for the mid-semester exams and 5 per cent for attendance. And the rest 50 per cent goes for the end semester exam.

Fests and events

The university holds Darpan, an inter-college fest annually that helps find fresh talent. The Department of Management Studies conducts Esprit, a steadfast integration and eventual correlation of students from management institutions across the country. The Deanery of Humanities and Social Sciences organises Blossoms and In Bloom, which starts with an intra-departmental cultural fest and culminates into a inter-deanery competition and includes music, dance, literary, art and theater events. Bhasha Utsav organised by the Department of Languages celebrates the diverse and multi-lingual culture.

Though the university is firm on dress code, there’s no dearth of fun-filled space for students. One such avenue is the many sports and games events organised by the physical education department including university team selections.

— june.kamath@mcn.christuniversity.in

June Kamath is a final-year master’s in communication student of Christ University

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed here are those of the author and don’t necessarily endorse the views of edex

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