St Xavier's College of Management and Technology BJMC Review By Mahtab Alam

St. Xavier’s College of Management and Technology, Patna is among the 1800+ educational institutes established and maintained by Jesuits worldwide. You become part of such a wide community as a student of this college. It is affiliated to Aryabhatta Knowledge University. Each year, students of St. Xavier’s College, Patna compete with students of other colleges and bring several university gold and silver medals. The college has five departments, namely the Departments of Commerce, Economics, Business Administration, and Mass Communication. Each department is headed by a Head of Department and faculties of different departments and administrative staff work together in different clubs. Senior administrative people are all Christian missionaries, this means that the college principal, vice-principal and other senior members are either Christian Father or Sister.

Studying in either of the Departments does not limit you from exploring other subjects. In fact, you study with students of other departments in the English Proficiency Classes. You get to engage with them during co-curricular such as poetry, debates, quizzes and other activities. Xavier’s Poetry Club, Xavier’s Theatre Club and Sports Clubs are known across different campuses of Patna and beyond for their competency, hard work and teamwork. Xavier’s Theatre Club was among the finalists at the IIT Kharagpur’s Spring Fest of 2019. Xavier’s Poetry Club has published a book. Being part of this community, you get to explore subjects and career options much beyond your chosen field.

Admission to St. Xavier’s is subject to a merit-based entrance test that includes a MCQs + descriptive questions set and a personal interview. English is not a criterion for admission. This is so to enable students from disadvantaged backgrounds a chance at excelling in their career. With each passing year, the competition for the limited seats multi-folds. Alumni are also well placed in their careers, either working with some reputed company or venturing on their own. Placement cell is responsible for internship and job placements. There is also a Srijan Cell in the college to support home-grown startups via interest-free loan and support in other means.

The Department of Mass Communication at our college came into existence in the year 2012. Some of our faculty members were in fact among the board members who structured the curricula for the three years Bachelor of Mass Communication at AKU. As such, the curricula is new and relevant to the requirements for higher education and cater to today’s job market.

The courses are also diverse, multidisciplinary, and strikes a perfect balance between theories and practical courses. Each semester, you will have one to two practical papers that will involve shooting, recording and other activities throughout the semester. This helps nurture the students for multiple roles in the media sector. For instance, I had joined in 2017 to become a journalist while I am looking forward to establishing an ad agency today. In 2012, our department had begun with only strength of 14 students and by the time I joined in 2017, we were a whopping of 56 students in our batch. Today, the batch of 2019-22 has strength of 60+ students. Do mind however that admission to the department is subject to a merit-based entrance test.

At present, the Department of Mass Communication has five permanent and three guest faculties. To put this in perspective, the total strength of our department including all the three batches is around 160 to 180. St. Xavier’s College of Management and Technology, Patna has a total strength of around 1,200 students across five undergraduate degree courses. The college must have around a total of 80 faculties including guest faculties. Some of the senior faculties in the department have 10+ years of academic experience, many of whom were permanent or guest faculties at Patna Women’s College.

In addition to a vast academic experience, these faculties have vast experience as media professionals as well. For instance, the Head of the Department, Ms Neerja Lal had won several awards hosting a radio show in Kolkata. These faculties are excellent teachers as well. Other faculties are pretty new teachers with nil or little experience in teaching. These faculties often lose control of the class, especially for the third years. Nonetheless, these new faculty members also come with a vast and respectable professional experience in media. For instance, Alok Sir joined our department only last year (2019) as a permanent faculty. Alok Sir doesn’t have any previous teaching experience but he has 34+ years of experience as a senior editor at Hindustan Times in Patna and Chandigarh. All faculties have a master’s or a double master’s in subjects relevant to the course they teach.

There is a placement cell in the college headed by a permanent faculty of any of the five departments of the college and run by student volunteers. This cell is responsible for internship and job placements. It also organises seminars on resume writing and mock interviews to better train the students for placements. Top recruiting companies have been Vivo, Digit and a number of well-known companies in Patna and outside. The highest packages are around Rs. 3.5 lacs per annum but these are mostly bagged by students of the commerce stream.

The highest package for the Department of Mass Communication was Rs. 3 lacs per annum for my batch of 2020, however, the same offer letter was not honoured by the company due to financial struggles owed to the Covid-19 pandemic. To be honest, a Bachelor’s in Mass Communication from St. Xavier’s College, Patna is a poor choice for placements. Most graduates start pretty low with an average placement for Rs. 2 lacs per annum. A large number of media graduates (say, 40%) don’t get placed at all. Nonetheless, all graduates do usually find a decent small career start on their own. It was, however, difficult for us, the Class of 2020.

There is no college hostel, however, there is a girls' hostel run by Jesuit members near the college. Most female students in our college stay there only. The hostel has quite a nice garden and a spacious campus. However, most of my female friends staying there complained of poor quality food and restrictive policies on clothing and outing.

St. Xavier’s College of Management and Technology has one of the best campuses among all of the private colleges and universities in Patna. It has a total of 13 acres of campus that includes a jungle-like Tarumitra, sports fields, enough space for hangout, a canteen and a well-built building with spacious and well-ventilated classrooms. The campus is thus large enough for an undergraduate college. It is also well-maintained and cleaned regularly and thoroughly. You have grass fields to sit on and there are a lot of trees across the campus. There is a large and well-cooled hall for various activities and seminars. This hall can accommodate 1500+ students at once. Another hall of 200+ capacity is located within the building for activities involving fewer students. The library is not that rich in terms of non-prescribed books, however, a request for books is seldom declined. I had requested for three books costing a total of ₹2,000 and the books were made available within three months.

Next, the Tarumitra is an internationally recognised manually maintained ecosystem that grows and nurtures several endangered plants and animals. Access to Tarumitra is subject to permissions, however. Classrooms don’t have A.C. (except for the computer labs and the media studio). But that shouldn’t matter as the classrooms are well-ventilated and keep cool even during summer. Talking about the Department of Mass Communication, the department has its own media studio with high-fidelity mics and professional-standard video cameras and other equipment. This provides ample hands-on experience for the students to play with for practical courses.

You get a nice and spacious campus at St. Xavier’s College of Management and Technology, Patna. With this large campus, you also get a nice campus life. There are various clubs to engage you in all sorts of co-curricular activities. Xavier’s Poetry Club and Xavier’s Theatre Club are two most prominent and recognised clubs of the college. Xavier’s Theatre Club has been featured numerous times in newspapers for street plays and theatres on social problems. Xavier’s Poetry Club has published an anthology of poems written by the head and student members of the club.

Baseball Club and other Sports Clubs have brought trophies and Debate and Public Speaking Clubs have organised numerous activities. Each Tuesday, there is a one and a half hours long session with a guest speaker. The guest speaker is usually a highly acclaimed person with recognised academic, professional and social welfare experience. Speakers have included Padma Shri awardee and senior police officers and bureaucrats. But the Annual Xest (Xavier’s Fest) remains at the heart of college experience. Other celebrations such as to cheer the freshers and privately organised music festivals are also nice reasons to celebrate your life at St. Xavier’s College.