Sri Venkateswara College
 | |
| Motto | Satyaan प्रमदितव्यम् |
|---|---|
Motto in English | Truth through self-education |
| Type | Public (Central Government) (Maintenance: 95% UGC; 5% College revenue; also one-time grants for development from the trust on requirement basis) |
| Established | 20 August 1961 (founder Durgabai Deshmukh) |
| Principal | Dr. P. Hemalatha Reddy |
| Students | 3800 (last updated January 2017) |
| Location |
Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi 28°35′19.68″N 77°10′4.15″E / 28.5888000°N 77.1678194°ECoordinates: 28°35′19.68″N 77°10′4.15″E / 28.5888000°N 77.1678194°E |
| Campus | Urban, 15 acres, South Campus |
| Calendar | Semester |
| Nickname | Venky |
| Affiliations | University of Delhi |
| Website | www.svc.ac.in |
Sri Venkateswara College is a co-ed constituent college of the University of Delhi in New Delhi, India[1]. It awards degrees under the purview of the university and offers courses at the undergraduate level. Vocational courses and short-term add-on courses that serve as significant supplements to the academic profiles of the students are offered. It is a national level college and not a minority college; there are no reservations for any religious or linguistic minority.
History
Founded under the auspices of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Trust, as a result of the efforts of Durgabai Deshmukh, who was a member of the constituent assembly of India and founder of the Andhra Education Society in Delhi (1948). She approached K. L. Rao (Member of Parliament) and C. Anna Rao (CEO of TTD),[2] after realising the acute shortage of a degree-level college in the city.
The primary objective of the college was to cater to the education needs of students from South India. It soon outgrew its regional characteristics and has now become one of the most sought after co-educational colleges of the University.
Foundation
The college started up in 1961 in a school building of the Andhra Education Society in Rouse Avenue (now Deen Dyal Uppadhyay Marg near ITO), New Delhi, with 271 students and 13 faculty members.[3] The foundation stone of the present campus was laid on 20 August 1961 by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, former president of India (then vice-president). The college moved into its newly constructed campus at Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi, on 25 August 1971.[2] In August 2010, the college celebrated its golden anniversary ushering in the fiftieth year of pioneering excellence in the field of education.[4][5]
Evolution
Sri Venkateswara College came into being through the vision of Durgabai Deshmukh, K. L. Rao and C. Anna Rao in 1961. Initially starting off as a BA pass college, it began by offering B.A. courses in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Sanskrit. Within few years of acquiring its new campus, and led by its principal V Krishnamoorthy, the college introduced honours courses in arts and science. In 1973 the University of Delhi recognised it as one of its constituent colleges, paving the way for future expansion. From its beginning with just language courses, the college now has academic departments in other disciplines: Maths and Statistics, English, Political Science, History, Botany, and Zoology. The Department of Chemistry which initially provided chemistry papers for other departments was permitted to conduct its own honours course in 1983. Honours courses in Physics (1993), Electronics (1987), and Biochemistry (1989) began. It is a fairly young college in comparison to others of the university which provide honours courses.
Infrastructure developments were undertaken starting from 2006 using fund accrued under CPE, Star College, OBC expansion fund, Golden Jubilee fund and TTD grants. Allegation of embezzlement has not been thoroughly investigated. The status of College with Potential for Excellence (UGC 2004) and Star College (DBT 2011) were awarded; CPE was withdrawn in 2011 because of lack of NAAC accredition which is absent in all of Delhi colleges.[6] Pass courses in BA, BSc, BCom, Life Science, Biological Science and Honours in Tamil and Telugu were discontinued in 2013.
Administration
Public involvement in the affairs of the college is through nomination of people from various walks of public life to its Governing Body as per provisions of statute 30(1)(c)(i) of Delhi University Act, 1922. Management of various activities of the college is supervised by the Principal through designated committees. Monitoring of the affairs of the college is done by its Governing Body, Academic Council & Executive Council of the University of Delhi.
The Governing Body of the college consist of the following:
- Ten members nominated by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams(TTD), one amongst them elected as chairman and another as treasurer.
- The principal of the college (ex-officio) member-secretary.
- Two members from the university (for two years).
- Two members of the teaching staff by rotation according to seniority (for two years),
Principals
- V Krishnamoorthy 1973-1993
- A Sankara Reddy 1993-2009
- P Hemalatha Reddy 2009–present
Courses offered
Undergraduate courses[7]
- B.A. (Hons) Economics
- B.A. (Hons) English
- B.A. (Hons) Hindi
- B.A. (Hons) History
- B.A. (Hons) Political Science
- B.A. (Hons) Sanskrit
- B.A. (Hons) Sociology
- B.A. Programme
- B. Com. Programme
- B. Com. (Hons)
- B. Sc. Life Sciences
- B. Sc. (Hons) Bio-Chemistry
- B. Sc. (Hons) Botany
- B. Sc. (Hons) Chemistry
- B. Sc. (Hons) Electronics
- B. Sc. (Hons) Mathematics
- B. Sc. (Hons) Physics
- B. Sc. (Hons) Statistics
- B. Sc. (Hons) Zoology
- B. Sc. (Hons.) Biological Sciences
Post Graduate Courses[8]
- M.A. English
- M.A. Sanskrit
- M.A. History
- M.A./M.Sc Mathematics
- M.A./M.Sc Statistics
- M.Sc Botany
- M.Sc Chemistry
- M.Sc Physics
- M.Sc Zoology
Add-on courses[9]
- Certificate Programme in Bioinformatics & Computational Biology (only for students of the college)[10]
- One Year Post-Graduate Diploma in Bio-Chemical & Molecular Technology
- One Year Postgraduate Certificate Course in Tourism and Travel Management
- One Year Certificate Course in German Language (Part-Time)
- One Year Diploma in German Language (Part-Time)
- One Year Advance Diploma in German Language (Part-Time)
- One Year Certificate Course in French Language (Part-Time)
- One Year Certificate Course in Italian Language (Part-Time)
- One Year Certificate Course in Russian Language (Part-Time)
- One Year Certificate Course in Spanish Language (Part-Time)
Facilities
- Hostel: Since 2008, Sri Venkateswara College has an on-campus hostel consisting of two blocks, one each for boys and girls to accommodate 144 students.[11]
- The Bioinformatics Center was established in 2006 to promote biology teaching through bioinformatics. It was funded initially by the Department of Biotechnology under the Biotechnology Information System (BTISnet) program. It is the first Bioinformatics Center established in the University of Delhi and North India for the benefit of undergraduate students.[12]
- The college has facilities for sports. The cricket field in the college campus has host district level competitions. Modern and better lawn tennis and basketball facilities are under construction.
- An auditorium with a seating capacity of 800.
- A fully air-conditioned and well equipped audio-visual Seminar Hall with a seating capacity of 250 students
- The college has a well stocked library of over 1,20,000 books and is subscribed to over 75 journals and periodicals[13]
- ICT Labs[14]
Student life
The college attracts a large number of students from all over the country. Outstation students generally reside at student-friendly accommodations in Satya Niketan, South Extension and Lajpat Nagar. Due to its strategic location in the south of the capital city, a sizable number of student is from south Delhi localities, Delhi Cantonment and Gurgaon. Given that most of the popular courses here were started in the early '90s, it is comparatively young resulting in a marked absence of a long illustrious alumni list. Despite the absence of the historical setting, the college has managed to carve out a name for itself owing to two primary factors, first is a dedicated faculty which keep academic standards high and second is the exceptional student crowd which gives it a very cosmopolitan look, making it the most talked about aspect of the college.
Student elections are held as per the DUSU format every year.
NEXUS
NEXUS, the annual inter-college cultural festival of Sri Venkateswara College, was founded in 1978. The three-day festival attracts students from all across the university.[15] The USP of the festival are its professional shows, including the Rock Show and Celebrity Show. Apart from this it holds competitions in Dramatics, Dance, Music, Fine Arts, Literary etc. Renowned rock bands like Parikrama, Indian Ocean, Pentagram, Advaita, Euphoria etc. and celebrities like Kailash kher Sunidhi Chauhan, KK, Mohit Chauhan, Vishal Dadlani, Jazzy b, Sukhwinder Singh, Shankar Mahadevan etc. have performed at the festival.[16][17] The festival is organised by Fine Arts Association(FAA) in collaboration with the Students' Union.
There are additional programmes like Venkateswara Swamy's Kalyanam and other poojas for Swami are done on regular basis and the prasadam is shared with students. There is an idol of Venkateswara Swamy in the college campus, which is worshipped regularly.
India Today rankings in 2016
Ranking for 2016: The college list within the top five co-ed for all three streams of arts, commerce and science in Delhi.
Controversies
- Allegation of favoritism in teacher recruitment in exchange of Padma Shri for former principal A Sankara Reddy (1993-2009).[18]
- Provident fund scam suspected but not investigated, under A Sankara Reddy.
References
- ↑ "Sri Venkateswara College - University of Delhi". www.du.ac.in. Retrieved 2017-06-03.
- 1 2 "About College". Official website.
- ↑ "Venkateswara to celebrate golden jubilee". The Times of India. Aug 12, 2010.
- ↑ Staff Reporter. "Venkateswara College enters jubilee year". The Hindu.
- ↑ "Upgrade training methods to produce skilled workforce: Patil". indianexpress.com.
- ↑ "Delhi University's two colleges stripped of elite UGC tag". intoday.in.
- ↑ "Sri Venkateswara College - University of Delhi". www.du.ac.in. Retrieved 2017-06-03.
- ↑ "Sri Venkateswara College - University of Delhi". www.du.ac.in. Retrieved 2017-06-03.
- ↑ "Sri Venkateswara College - University of Delhi". www.du.ac.in. Retrieved 2017-06-03.
- ↑ "Bioinformatics Center - Certificate Programme in Bioinformatics & Computational Biology". www.bic-svc.ac.in. Retrieved 2017-06-03.
- ↑ "Sri Venkateswara College". svc.ac.in.
- ↑ "Bioinformatics Center Home". bic-svc.ac.in.
- ↑ "Sri Venkateswara College". www.svc.ac.in. Retrieved 2017-06-03.
- ↑ "Sri Venkateswara College". www.svc.ac.in. Retrieved 2017-06-03.
- ↑ "Sri Venkateswara College Portrait". Official website.
- ↑ "Know Your Fest!". Hindustan Times. Jun 29, 2012.
- ↑ "The zesty fests of DU". Hindustan Times. Jun 10, 2011.
- ↑ "Padma Shri as return gift?". mid-day.com.