Christ University

CHRIST (Deemed to be University) was born out of the educational vision of St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara, an educationalist and social reformer of the nineteenth century in South India.[11] He initiated school education for the deprived and marginalised classes in the Southern part of the country.[12] He founded the first indigenous Catholic congregation Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), in 1831 which administers CHRIST (Deemed to be University).[11] Established in 1969 as Christ College, the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India conferred Autonomy to the Christ College in 2004[13] and identified it as an institution with Potential for Excellence in 2006.[14] In 2008 under section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India, declared the institution a Deemed to be University, in the name and style of CHRIST (Deemed to be University). One of the first institutions in India to be accredited in 1998 by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), and subsequently in 2004 and 2016, CHRIST (Deemed to be University) has been awarded Grade 'A' on 4-point scale.[15]

The multi-disciplinary university, which focuses on teaching, research and service, offers Bachelors to Doctoral programmes in Humanities, Social Sciences, Commerce, Management, Engineering, Education and Law to over 18000 students.[16]

CHRIST (Deemed to be University) during Christmas

The campus is a zero waste campus and recycles its wet waste and used paper.[17] Students are provided with smart cards which serve as debit cards for transactions such as fee payments and library dues. The card is issued by the South Indian Bank[18] The 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. It is on the extension of Hosur Road (NH 7) opposite the Bangalore Dairy Circle Flyover. The city campus is close to residential localities such as BTM Layout, a residential and commercial area, Koramangala, another large neighborhood and Jayanagar, one of the largest residential neighborhoods in Bangalore. In 2009, CHRIST (Deemed to be University) opened a campus spread over 75 acres at Kengeri on the Bangalore-Mysore highway SH 17 which houses the Faculty of Engineering, PU Residential college, the Institute of Management which offers MBA programmes as well as College of Architecture Which was started officially from 2017.[19]

CHRIST (Deemed to be University) also has a campus in Hulimavu on Bannerghatta Road, inaugurated in May 2016.[20] IIM, Bangalore, The Royal Meenakshi Mall and the Bannerghatta National Park are nearby. A boys' hostel, an auditorium that seats 1500, a mini auditorium that seats 200 and four eateries are on campus.

The campus offers undergraduate honours and triple major degree programmes in Economics, Psychology, English, Journalism, Business Administration, Political Science, Media Studies and a bachelors and masters programme in tourism and travel management.[21]

Apart from these campuses, Christ has two more campuses, in Lavasa, Pune which was established in the year 2007 [22]and in Delhi NCR established in the year 2013.[23]

The university has around 18,000 students from all over India and the world, and around 800+ faculty members.[24] The University is managed by the CHRIST (Deemed to be University) Trust, which in turn is organized and funded by the CMI congregation, under the Syro Malabar Major Archiepiscopal Church. The Chancellor of the university is always the rector of the Dharmaram Pontifical Seminary.[25] Thus, by assuming the rector's seat, he also assumes the position of the Chancellor. Under him comes the Vice Chancellor, who takes all the decisions which can affect day-to-day administrative matters. The present Vice Chancellor is Dr Fr Abraham Vettiyankal Mani, who holds a doctorate from Bangalore University and an American masters in Computer Science. Though the vice chancellor's position is usually assumed by a priest from the congregation, the person appointed thus has all the qualifications and academic experiences required by the UGC.[26] Under the vice chancellor comes the registrar: currently, Dr Anil Pinto. The financial matters of the university are managed by a Chief Finance Officer. Various deaneries and departments are headed and represented by deans and department heads.

CHRIST (Deemed to be 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.[27] 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.[24]

Undergraduate Programmes

BGR Campus Front view

The university offers 46 undergraduate programmes in humanities, social sciences, science, commerce and management, education, Law 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.[27]

Wikipedia in the undergraduate programme

Wikipedia workshop for second language students

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.[28] The Hindi and Kannada articles may be found at collection of Hindi articles and collection of Kannada articles.

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:[24] 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 (Deemed to be University) Law Journal.

Some of the notable works are:

• Guhangari: A Book on Urban Wildlife, CHRIST (Deemed to be University). A naturalist's notes on the Biodiversity at the campus.
• Life Scripts series, published in association with Orient Blackswan
• MindScripts series, along with Orient Blackswan

The University is a member of the Association of Indian Universities[30] and International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU)[31]

• Aindrita Ray, Kannada actress
• Ankur Betageri, poet, fiction writer, art activist
• Annu Antony, Malayalam film actress who debuted in the movie Aanandam[32][33]
• Francis George, former Member of Parliament representing the Idukki Constituency. Chairman of Janadhipathya Kerala Congress
• Gautham Karthik, Tamil film actor
• Gokul Suresh, actor
• Jahnavi Kamath, film actress
• K M Chaitanya, Kannada film maker, theatre director
• Krishna Byre Gowda, M.L.A., Karnataka and President, Karnataka Youth Congress
• Madhukeshwar Desai, CEO, Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration, National Vice President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha
• Madonna Sebastian, Malayalam film actress who made her debut in the Malayalam film Premam
• Meghana Raj, South Indian actress
• Nanditha Shwetha, Kannada actress and South Indian model
• Nicole Faria, Miss Earth 2010
• Nidhhi Agerwal Bollywood and Telugu actress, Yamaha Fascino Miss Diva 2014 finalist
• Pearle Maaney, D 4 dance anchor, actress and model
• Reba Monica John, Malayalam film actress who debuted in the movie Jacobinte Swargarajyam
• Rima Kallingal, Malayalam film actress
• Samyukta Hornad, Kannada film actress
• Sruthi Hariharan, actress
• Thomas Mathew, Malayalam film actor who debuted in the movie Aanandam[34][35]
• Vijay Suriya, actor
• Vineeth Vincent, beat boxer
• Gouri G. Kishan Actress

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.[36][37][38][39]

The record was broken by Booking.com on 10 December 2013 with 4695 participants.[40]

Christ University was 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) and the State Government are required to submit a "No-Objection Certificate" (NoC) to the University Grants Commission (UGC). The state government refused to grant the request for an NoC. The UGC relied on the NoC from Bangalore University and the NoC from the state government was not a requirement and recommended university status to the institution. The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India based on the UGC recommendation granted the University status.[41] The institute is now a deemed to be university.[42][43][44][45][46]

• List of deemed universities
• Dharmaram College
• Bangalore

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Christ University, Bangalore.

• Official website