Kamaraj College B.A Review By Ajay Antony

Kamaraj College is one of the most reputed and oldest colleges in Tamil Nadu. The college was established in the year 1966 by the TES (The Tuticorin Education Society). Our college has named after Bharat Ratna awardee Kumaraswami Kamaraj who was also the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu. The college is affiliated with MSU (Manonmaniam Sundaranar University). I was a part of Arts College, while college offers Science, and Commerce undergraduate courses as well. The campus is spread across 50 acres and is in the center of the beautiful city of Thoothukudi.

The college has given some of the finest students who are sitting comfortably at the top positions in some of the finest corporate houses. Kamaraj College is recognized as one of the premier institutes and hence people from various parts of Tamil Nadu come to enroll in this college. The best part of our college is that it has kept pace with how things are changing and has lead to many innovations in the field of research and education. The college has become a byword not just for academics but for extra-curricular activities as well. The college’s president has put an impetus on all-round development of the students and hence they have given equal importance for sports talent development and cultural talent development. There are as many as 4 major sporting events that are held every year and as many as six cultural events are conducted every year. The college’s strength is little above 4000 and nearly 1000 students participate in this fest. The major inter-college event Pongalovium is held in our college in January every year.

The admission process is also transparent as they have their own admission form and a cut-off list is released for each stream. The percentage is calculated based on 4 subjects of H.S.C as marks scored in PE and the second language is not considered. Admissions are based purely on merit and almost all the students who made the cut to this college were selected by the same process.

Just like various other colleges in south India, Academic is given the utmost importance. Though the professors and Principal keep bragging that, we are given equal importance to other activities as well, the study has been given the maximum priority. There are over 30 courses offered by the college and some of them are in Tamil as well. I was a part of B.A. English and I will have to say that the department was one of the most energetic and the professors taught the methodological approaches. The department of B.A. English was one of the 2 self-financed courses offered by the college. Hence, that is why the fees were higher than the other courses.

The head of our department was Ms. M. Sheyamala who has been serving in this college for the last 2 decades. She always taught us to be self-dependent and was one of the go-to professors in case of doubts. Our English Part II professor Dr. P. Shashikala needs a special mention as he was the one who taught us the importance of being a nice human being. Let me share an incident when the professor asked all the students in the class, what you want to become? All said something or the other and to this professor replied, I am saddened as no one wants to be a nice human being in my class. This really touched all of us and we will always be thankful to Shashikala sir for teaching us great values in life.

As mentioned earlier faculty of our college was arguably the best. All the professors that we had were highly qualified and passed out from the top-notch institute of the country. Faculty advisors were allotted to each department and in case of any query, it was relatively easy to approach them. All the academic-related queries were solved at the earliest and this proves that the importance that Kamaraj College gave to studies.

All the members of the faculty staff were interactive and easy to approach. The faculty is the reason why Kamaraj College today is among the most sought after colleges in Tamil Nadu. To make sure the students have an all-round development, seminars, workshops, and guest lectures were organized by the college from time to time.

Unfortunately, though that none of the students from our batch got placed. The college does have a placement cell but that didn’t help our cause. When asked about the same to the management, the management said we have empowered you to become self-dependent and what they actually did. I am a prime example as I always loved writing and therefore I am associated with a company that has provided me the platform to showcase my writing skills.

The college has separate buildings for boys and girls hostel which caters half of the college strength. The hostel is in a way a residential block with flat systems. I stayed in the hostel for 3 years and will have to say nothing negative about the hostel as it has all the basic facilities such as live running water, water coolers, tight security underneath the building, and study tables for each student in their rooms.

The food available in the hostel mess was maybe not so good sometimes as the menu kept repeating and we were left with no option but to order meals at least once or twice a week. Overall the hostel may scores less in comparison to other facilities that the college has but is still the best option for you to stay rather than staying in other parts of the city if you are an outsider.

The college campus was built on 50 acres of land and has 6 academic blocks such as UG Block, PG Block, Women’s Block, Golden Jubilee Block, Distance Education & Coaching Center, and Admin Block. The college building is fully equipped with smart classrooms, drawing halls, well-equipped labs, centers of excellence, HOD department, Seminar halls, libraries, and conference halls among others. The college campus also had residential hostels for boys and girls. The college campus also had some state of the art Mathematics, Zoology, Chemistry, History, Microbiology, Economics, and Computer Science research center. Other facilities of the college include Canteen, ATM facility, playgrounds, air-conditioned conference halls, indoor games court, health & gym facility, and canteen. The college has installed multiple fiber-optic broadband networks so that every student gets internet access. These broadband cater to network to computer labs, smart classrooms, central library, and also cover a campus-wide Wi-Fi.

During our time in college, a new Golden Jubilee building was constructed in the year 2017 to celebrate the golden jubilee of college. The building is fully high tech and is equipped with teaching aids, the latest lab equipment, and a complete security system. For commerce students, a new computer laboratory with 32 computers was opened. The central library of the college boasts over 20k books and nearly 2000 books are added every year. The already existing chess room too was upgraded in the year 2015 and a new volleyball court and kabaddi grounds were constructed in the last 5 years. The college canteen which became too crowded was renovated and now has a seating capacity of over 1000 students at a time. Though, it still gets overcrowded during the evenings. A large LED display unit has been installed at the admin building for display of upcoming events, day to day notices, awareness programs, and live display of various college events.

Students' basic needs were all satisfied in Kamaraj College and hence what else do we need. The college has a beautiful campus, experienced lecturers, well-equipped labs, transport facility 24 hours, and a tight security system to enable security of the students are all addressed by the college. The best part of the college is that they focus on the depth of learning rather than covering the content’s breadth.

The college fees are reasonable compared to other colleges and the courses are designed to provide students with a significant range of managerial skills. The college also provides scholarships in accordance with state and central government criteria. The bottom line is that this college makes sure that students passing out from the college can contribute towards a greater India.