Message from the Principal
A pioneering ladies college, in a beautiful campus, with lush greenery and fine heritage buildings, this grand matriarch has kept pace with modernity, offering a cosmopolitan experience to each student who vie to get into her fold. Nurturing and maintaining a tradition of good values coupled with an ethos of respect, tolerance and integrity continue to be our hallmark. Our corridors resonate not only with lectures, laughter and life but also with the footfall of gifted women who have carried forth the beacon lit here, to enrich and face the world with resilience and grit. GCW is synonymous with girl power, and we strongly believe that the most beautiful thing a girl can sport is confidence.
Started as the Sircar Girl’s School in 1864 by the Royal family of Travancore, it subsequently evolved into a College in 1897. In 1927 it was elevated to the status of a First Grade College, by her Highness Sethu Lekshmi Bai, a princess celebrated for her commitment to female education and empowerment. Such was her enthusiasm that she brought down trained teachers from Europe for providing quality education to the women of Kerala. We respect her undertaking and the college has as its focus, a clear mission to provide women with an inclusive environment to pursue a modern, liberal education that would help mould young minds.
Affiliated to the University of Kerala, the college offers 17 post graduate, 18 graduate, 12 research courses, and a formidable array of extracurricular activities, tuned to develop in our girls, a strong intellectual base and a coherent view of the world. The college supports Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’s (UBA) Village Adoption programmes, FLAIR programmes, and Continuing Education short term courses that conduct career oriented classes for women outside the academic setting.
Our Science stream is exceptional, ensuring that students of the highest calibre are churned out and our laboratories with state-of-the-art facilities are maintained extremely well. The faculty is brilliant, well qualified, with good international exposure and publications. Our Humanities and Social sciences faculty surpass in multifarious activities that promote an outlook of free inquiry and critical thinking in the classrooms. They stimulate a thought process, robust enough to resist the onslaught of antiquated tenets and conformist beliefs that stand in the way of a strong growth mindset in our girls.
Hosting International and National Seminars, Film Screenings, Workshops, Extension activities, and Collaborative courses are prioritized not only to hone the organizing abilities of our girls, but also to facilitate international exposure and interaction with academicians and practitioners. The profusion of cultural activities in the college at any given time makes campus life at GCW, a passage of freedom and discovery, providing ample opportunities to engage in diverse activities ranging from academics to the cultural, from amateur to the professional.
Classroom experience is truly transforming and our faculty ensures that the girls traverse through a brilliant teaching-learning experience that helps in the active construction of knowledge and stimulate intellectual inquiry. Pedagogical exercises that incorporate the latest methodologies in teaching are interwoven to make the classroom experience gratifying and the teacher mentoring is done effectively by engaging students in a constant dialogue that exposes them to real life activities and healthy human relationships.
It is not just academics that keep our girls engaged, but a host of sports and sporting events that provide a truly invigorating environment. Our trophies speak for themselves and with shuttle courts, play grounds, library, gymnasium and a nodal center for psychological well-being with a therapist in tow, the college offers a robust ambience that supports the holistic development of each girl. The NCC and NSS units of our college are a spirited lot, contributing real support and social assistance to communities in rural as well as underprivileged areas.
Our library is our pride. Located in a prime spot in the campus, it houses around one lakh books, besides providing online access to international databases with a wider collection of reputed journals and titles. A well-maintained canteen, offers a variety of food items at very affordable rates and an active PTA provides basic amenities, often lending a helping hand to disadvantaged students from far and near. Our Non-teaching Staff are the finest – committed and full of enthusiasm, who spare no efforts to keep the office and campus running smoothly.
Scholarships and financial support are granted to commendable students and we are proud that our girls come within the first five ranks in most State level exams. Students who seek admission undergo an open online selection procedure conducted by the University of Kerala, and the principles of social justice and equality of opportunity upon which the College was originally founded still guide us as we move into the 21st century.
Our impetus to excel is unabated and with collaborations and hands-on support from our Alumni Association we are on the way to achieving global excellence. It is a matter of pride that we have been consistently ranked with an A grade by NAAC as well as feature in the top fifty in the NIRF All-India Colleges Ranking List. Mediocrity is not for us, and bettering ourselves is our touchstone.
William Butler Yeats once defined education as “not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” At GCW we start a bonfire!
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