Thiruvananthapuram: University College, in the news for violence on the campus, was ranked first in the state and 23rd at the all India level in the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the Union human resources development ministry.
And the 150-year-old institution has produced many luminaries.
They included Abu Abraham, cartoonist, A. R. Raja Raja Varma, poet, grammatician, professor, K. R. Narayanan, former president of India, Kris Gopalakrishnan, former CEO of Infosys, Malayattoor Ramakrishnan, author, cartoonist and civil servant, M.S. Swaminathan, "father of Green Revolution" in India, O. N. V. Kurup, poet, lyricist, professor and Jnanpith award winner, Pattom A. Thanu Pillai, former chief minister, P. C. Alexander, civil servant, administrator, P. K. Iyengar, Indian nuclear physicist, S. Venkitaramanan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Thanu Padmanabhan, theoretical physicist and T. P. Sreenivasan, diplomat.
The college came into focus again this year after the suicide attempt of a first-year B.Sc. student saying there was no scope for a peaceful academic activity for her on the campus. The subsequent murder attempt on a colleague by student leaders exposed the lack of political democracy. There were several incidents when SFI leaders had been accused of political excesses.
On the other hand, the college has A grade NAAC accreditation, and it offers 18 undergraduate and 20 postgraduate courses.
It has 17 research departments, 15 of them with M Phil course.
The college with 3,294 students has a cut off mark of 93 per cent for science, 80 per cent for arts 90 per cent for postgraduate courses, with 90 and 80 per cent in the reserved category.
Of the 224 teachers, 183 have PhD.
Around 70 per cent of the students have a scholarship. The pass percentage in degree course was 75 per cent and 95 per cent in PG.
