Christ University

History

Christ University was formerly Christ College (Autonomous) affiliated to Bangalore University. Established in July 1969, Christ College became the most preferred educational institution in the city of Bangalore within the first three decades. Initially founded as a constituent college of Bangalore University it was exclusively meant for providing college education to the seminarians. However, due to the quality of training and infrastructure, many students from outside started showing interest in joining the college. Thus the college started accepting non-seminarian students. Christ College was recognized by the University Grants Commission of India, (UGC) on 17 June 1972. It was accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), a UGC-funded body, in 1998 and re-accredited in 2005 and 2015. Christ College was the first college in the state of Karnataka to be accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council for quality education. On 7 October 2004, UGC has conferred Autonomy to Christ College (No. F.13-1/2004). Later, Christ College was granted 'Deemed to be University' status in 2008 under the recommendation of UGC.

Campus

The University campus was awarded 'Best Institutional Buildings and Garden' award by the Bangalore Urban Arts Commission for three consecutive years between 2000–2002. It also won the 'Best Institutional Garden' instituted by the Mysore Horticulture Society for twenty four consecutive years including 2012.The campus is a zero waste campus and recycles its wet waste and used paper. The campus is cashless with students being provided with smart cards which serve as identity cards and debit cards. The card is issued by the South Indian Bank The university main campus is spread over 25 acres (10 ha) and is part of the 100-acre (40 ha) Dharmaram College Campus in the central part of Bangalore city. The campus is located on the extension of Hosur Road (NH 7) opposite the Bangalore Dairy Flyover.The city campus is placed close to residential localities such as BTM Layout, one of the most popular residential and commercial areas in Bangalore, Koramangala, another large neighborhood and Jayanagar, one of the largest residential neighborhoods in Bangalore. In 2009, Christ University opened an eco-friendly campus spread over 75 acres at Kengeri on the Bangalore-Mysore highway SH 17 which houses the Faculty of Engineering, PU Residential college and the Institute of Management which offers MBA programmes.

Christ University also has a campus located in Hulimavu on Bannerghatta Road, inaugurated in May 2016. IIM, Bangalore, The Royal Meenakshi Mall and the Bannerghatta National Park are located nearby. The campus offers undergrduate Honours programmes in Economics, Psychology, English, Journalism, Business Administration, and a bachelors and masters programme in tourism and travel management.

Architecture

The Main campus consists of six blocks:

Organization and administration

The university has around 18,000 students from all over India and the world, and around 800+ faculty members. The University is managed by the Christ University Trust, which in turn is organized and funded by the CMI congregation. The Chancellor of the university will be always the rector of the Dharmaram Pontifical Seminary. Thus, by assuming the rectors seat, he also assumes the position of the Chancellor as well. Since the position is more of titular in nature, he usually doesn't interfere in the day-to-day activities of the university. Under him comes the Vice Chancellor. He is the one who takes all the decisions which can affect the day to day administrative matters of the university. The present Vice Chancellor Lt. Col Dr Fr Thomas C. Mathew holds his doctorate in Chemistry from USA. Though the vice chancellor's position is usually assumed by a priest from the congregation, the person appointed thus will be having all the qualifications and academic experiences as required by the UGC. Under the vice chancellor comes the registrar. Currently, the registrar is Dr Anil Pinto. The financial matters of the university is managed by a Chief Finance Officer. Various deaneries and departments are headed and represented by deans and department heads.

Academics

Christ University offers certificate, diploma, undergraduate, postgraduate and research programs in academic disciplines classified under the Schools of Law, Education, Sciences, Social Sciences & Languages, Commerce & Management and Engineering. In 2005, the formerly known Christ College (now Christ University) was the first institution in South India to be re-accredited with A by NAAC.

Undergraduate programmes

The university offers 46 undergraduate programmes in humanities, social sciences, science, commerce and management, Law, education, and engineering. Undergraduate programmes are of three-year duration except in the case of Bachelor of Education (BEd, two years), Bachelor of Hotel Management (BHM, four years), Bachelor of Laws (LLB, five years), Bachelor of Technology (BTech, four years) and an integrated BTech/MTech or MBA (five years). Except for Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Commerce (BCom), Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Science (BSc) programmes follow a Triple Major system.

Wikipedia in the undergraduate programme

The institution entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India to make article writing on Wikipedia a core exercise for the continuous internal assessment of its 1600 undergraduate students in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Sanskrit and Urdu. The university produced the first of its kind Wikipedia video tutorials in two languages – Hindi and Kannada. The Hindi and Kannada articles may be found at collection of Hindi articles and collection of Kannada articles

Post-Graduate programmes

The University offers 44 masters, 17 Master of Philosophy and 21 PhD degree programmes in Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, Law, Education, commerce and management, and Engineering. Masters programmes are of two years duration, except for Master of Computer Science and Master of Law which are three years and one-year duration, respectively.

Higher education rankings

India Today in association with Nielsen conducts surveys and rates the institutions of higher education in India on several parameters. The rankings till the year 2016 are summarised in the two tables below. The BBA and BCA programmes are rated among the best in India for 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The university ranking moved up from 31 in 2012 to 11 in 2015.

The Week in association with Hansa research conducted the Week-Hansa research survey and the rankings are listed in the following table.

Collaborations

Christ University is part of the University Studies Abroad Consortium(USAC). Christ University has collaborations with Western Michigan University, Catholic University of America and Baldwin Wallace University in the USA, ansea University, Sheffield Hallam University, Liverpool Hope University in the UK, Griffith University in Australia, Lille Catholic University in France, University of Paris, Griffith University Australia, University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS), Germany, Zurich University of Applied Sciences and NHTV University of Applied Sciences in Netherland. MoU for exchange programmes were signed with six Korean universities in 2013. There are also collaborations with the following organizations

India Gateway Programme

The India gateway program (IGP) is a short stay program designed for foreign students to experience India. Under this programme, students from a foreign university can visit and study in the university main campus for one semester under a stream that they prefer and approved by the university. In 2014, a batch of 150 Korean students from various South Korean Universities studied in the Christ University.

Libraries

There are two libraries in the city campus: the main library and the 'Knowledge Centre' which is spread across the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth floors of the central block. University library stacks contains 2,20,589 books as of May 2015. Of which 31,703 are reference books. It also includes a good collection of law reports, whose total size is 10,089.Main Library, otherwise known as the UG library consists of 60,339 titles whereas the Knowledge Centre consists of 46,628 titles. Kengeri Library owns around 19,000 titles which are mainly from the engineering and management streams. Library is also subscribed to around 219 national and international periodicals and 198 journals. Of those, 41 are international journals. The library is run by 6 dedicated full-time librarians and several other library assistants. The library database is completely digitized and is managed through Koha software. With the help of this open source management system, all the book issues and returns are recorded online. Users can access their library usage details and can pay their fines through their user accounts. Library uses state of art security systems to secure its collections and premises. 3M security scanners are installed and CCTV cameras are used to ensure the security of the library and its users.

Research

The university offers research programmes in the form of one and half year Master of Philosophy (MPhil) programmes and 5 year PhD programmes. The Centre for Research Projects offers grants to faculty members for Major Research Projects and Minor Research Projects, Monographs and Working Papers. As per the UGC norms, most of the academic output made by the students as a part of their Continuous Internal Assessment (CIA) are in accordance with the formal research methodologies. They are also encouraged to participate in various academic discussions, seminars, symposiums and colloquiums. In the year 2015, various departments and deaneries of the university organized 89 national and international seminars. Along with this, university also works with various other reputed organizations like ICSSR, RBI etc. in encouraging the students as well as the faculties to engage in a research based academics.

Publications

The university has published over 220 books in Kannada, through Kannada Sangha, a non-profit organisation of the university promoting Kannada around the world and publishes six peer reviewed journals: To make wider the base advance, a full-fledged Centre for Publications was started in the year 2001. Two quarterly journals- Artha-Journal of Social Sciences and Mapana-Journal of Sciences and four biannual journals-Ushus-Journals of Business Management, Tatva-Journal of Philosophy, Atna-Journal of Tourism Studies and CULJ-Christ University Law Journal. Through the Kannada Sangha, 233 books have been published over the past three decades. The focus of these publications is to inculcate the research culture through research articles, scientific papers, review articles, profiles and interviews that are drawn from universities, colleges and research organisations in India and abroad. The Centre also has to its cap several books on higher education, psychology, conference proceedings, Working papers, Monographs, annual report of the university etc.

Some of the notable works are:

Darpan

Darpan is an intra-collegiate cultural fest which usually takes place during the month of July. Winning this fest gives the entry ticket to the University Cultural Team who represent the university across the nation.

Blossoms

Blossoms is an inter-deanery cultural fest which usually takes place during the month of February. In this festival, various deaneries compete with each other. Various events ranging from potpourri, rangoli, wall painting etc.

In-Bloom

In-Bloom is an inter-collegiate cultural fest which usually takes place during the month of February. In this festival, various colleges across the nation compete with each other. Various events ranging from potpourri, rangoli, wall painting etc.

Sound Curry

A final rendition event of songs sung in choral harmony performed by the Christ University Choir. It is a mix and mashup of Contemporary to Classical.

Magnificat

The flagship event of Christ University Choir.

Nritta

The University Dance Day organised by the Department of Performing Arts.

Bhasha Utsav

Bhasha utsav is a multi-lingual and multi-cultural festival with the main features being Dollukunita, thunder dance and bayalata. The festival showcases the cultural traditions of the country. Past years have seen Garudi Gombe, Chenda Singaram Melam, Kalaripayattu, Vedic Chanting, Thiruvathirakkali, Rabindra Sangeet,the Kerala Nadanam, a pure blend of Mohiniyattam and Kathakali. This is one day in the year where students wear their ethnic clothes and dance to the musicians beats on the campus.

Theatre and Mega Production

“Of Power and Passion” was Christ University’s first mega production that was stage on 2 and 3 March 2012. It was well received by the audience that came in full throng on both nights. The highlight of the production was undoubtedly the crucifixion scene where the Cross of Christ was carried up the auditorium and hung from the top of the stage. The music made the productions exceed expectations as it lifted the setting to a whole new level, with the inclusion of a Greek chorus that were dressed in heavenly white robes and whose voices echoed through the hall throughout the play. The play was a success of gargantuan proportions as it not only demonstrated the love and passion of Jesus Christ on stage, but also the finesse and exemplary leadership that each person showed, which led to the eventual success of Christ University’s first Mega Production. Francisco was the 2013 mega production. Francisco serves to be a very important highlight of our study at Christ University. It was the second mega production and there were over 200 students from different deaneries in college. Francesco is the story of St Francis of Assisi who had embarked on a journey to turn the eyes of the sinful to God, and who had devoted his life completely to God espousing poverty as his bride. This magnificent production was staged on 3 separate nights on the main campus stage as well as at the Kengeri Campus. The university has an active theatre group which organises yearly productions. 'The Anointing'(2014) was the biggest production so far. In the year 2015, the mega production was based on a work by Irving Stone.Though presented on the screen, ‘The Agony and The Ecstasy’ by Irving Stone, has never been done on the stage nor has a formal script ever been written for a stage presentation. It was a ‘first’ when Christ University decided to do this extravagant production on stage; and to mark the historic event Padmashree Alyque Padamsee flew down from Mumbai to witness Christ University’s fourth mega production, ‘The Agony and The Ecstasy’, and was completely bowled over by it. ‘The Agony and The Ecstasy is the true life-story of the brilliant painter and sculptor of the Renaissance era, and his love for Contessina de Medici, which, unfortunately, rivalled his love for painting and his desire to do the Pope’s bidding to paint the vast ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with the story of Creation.

Membership

The University is a member of the Association of Indian Universities.

Alumni

~ Thomas Mathew, Malayalam film actor who debuted in the movie Aanandam

Faculty

Students

World records

On 10 January 2011, Christ Junior College, Bangalore, under ensemble director Vineeth Vincent, in an event titled 'Can You Say Beat Box?' created the largest human beatbox ensemble in the Limca Book of Records with 2136 participants.

According to the Guinness World Records, the record for the largest human beatbox ensemble was achieved by Christ University (India) in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, on 5 February 2011 under ensemble director Vineeth Vincent involving 1,246 participants. The record was broken by Shlomo on 14 November 2011 with 2,081 participants.

Controversies

Christ University is involved in a controversy surrounding the granting of deemed university status. According to norms, before the status is granted, the affiliating university (Bangalore University in this case) is required to submit a "No-Objection Certificate" (NoC) to the University grants commission. The state government refused to grant the request for a NoC, and Bangalore University did not send an official NoC either. Instead, the UGC relied on ambiguous text in a letter from Bangalore University's registrar. This led to the inclusion of Christ University in a list of 44 universities that were to be recognised as deemed universities. Now Christ University is a deemed university and has ranking in top colleges in India according to India Today survey.