Society of Jesus applies for central university status

Consolidating on its 500-year-old legacy of providing quality education, The Society of Jesus (SJ) (popularly known as Jesuits) has applied for a Central University status with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Once the proposal is approved, the Central University status will bring the society’s 22 granted and 40-odd non-granted colleges under one roof. The society has not asked for funds from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and the institutes would remain self-financed.

“The central university status will provide us a single-window functioning capability wherein, all the institutes running under SJ will work under an umbrella management. We have applied for the status and have been conducting meetings with the ministry to follow it up,” said Vincent Braganza, co-ordinator of Jesuit Educational Association for Higher Education, a wing of SJ, which is handling the proposal initiatives.

However, the institutes would function as earlier as the status quo would be maintained as long as their format and name is concerned.

Currently, the society runs colleges and other educational institutions under the name of St Xaviers. Along with the Xavier’s institutions including the Xavier’s Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar and the Xavier Institute of Labour Relations, Jamshedpur, colleges like the Loyola College in Chennai and St Aloysius College in Mangalore will also come under the umbrella management.

The move has been triggered by the UPA government's announcement of providing minority institutions with such a status.

“The status will help in free faculty and students movements across group colleges. Plus, we can also offer specialised courses that can be availed by all the students and thereby avoid duplication among institutes. Since several of these colleges are already granted, the government will not have to provide more funds,” said Braganza.