Our college, the Maharaja`s College, Ernakulam , is one of the best and biggest centers of learning and higher education in the state of Kerala. Though located in the heart of Cochin city, it is spread over a campus of 10 acres on the banks of Vembanad lake. Blanketed by tall and rare species of trees, its buildings are structures that speak of very old as well as modern architectural archetypes and cover a total area of 19,525sq.m. This house provides infrastructure facilities for the 19 departments of the college.
This multidisciplinary center of higher learning had its humble beginnings as a single room English school started by Cochin Sarkar in 1845 'to impart such instruction to the students as would enable them to converse with Englishmen without the aid of an interpreter'. The school was upgraded into a college in 1875 and in June 1925 the college got its present name. It was raised to a first grade college providing instructions in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, History and Economics and affiliated to Madras University. At that time itself there were 2 hostels and physical education, literary and science associations functioning in full swing. Sir C V Raman and Dr S Radhakrishnan were among the speakers on the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1925.
The first PG course was started in 1947 in the department of Chemistry that already had research facilities holding to M.Sc and Ph.D. Following- the integration of Cochin and Travancore states the college was transferred from Madras to Travancore University in 1949. The further growth and development by way of student strength and diversification of courses were so rapid that the maintenance of steady equilibrium became difficult. The student strength rose from 500 in 1925 to 2802 in 1998 and the teaching faculty also followed a parallel increase from 21 to 195.
The college library is 125 years old and has a collection of nearly one lakh books including a prestigious collection of rare literature books. The reference section itself has 2000 books. However, lack of space is one of the vexing problems of the library. The construction of a 3-storied library complex will be starting soon with UGC assistance. A reference and information section, inter-library networking and Internet facility are some of the immediate requirements of the library.
The facilities available for sports activities include a 400 meters track, foot ball court cum cricket ground, stadium pavilion with a capacity of 25,000 people, courts for games like hockey, volley ball, basket ball, kho-kho, kabady, ball badminton etc. In addition facilities are available for indoor games like table-tennis, carom, chess, wrestling, weight lifting and power lifting.
The Maharaja`s college staff & students co-operative society Ltd.no.207, functioning in the campus, aims at promoting the spirit of co-operation and independence among the members. The society is running a bookshop in which textbooks and note books and all kinds of study materials are made available for students. It also houses a Photostat machine where Xeroxing is done at a reduced rate.
A career guidance centre was started in the college campus in 1994, with a view to enable the students to manage themselves and to provide personal counseling on environment and qualifications for entry into career. Inspite of the fact that the centre is still in its infancy and has little infra structural facilities, it could arrange campus interviews for Cochin Maintenance Centre, NITT and Eureka Forbes. In addition many, lectures on career opportunities are being arranged on a regular basis by the centre.
The MCRV hostels include the new hostel for men and the ladies hostel. The former has 90 rooms with a capacity of 240 students and 2 tutors and the latter has facilities for only. 104 students and one tutor. Nowadays, the demand for accommodation in. the ladies hostel is more than availability due to increase in the number of girl students. To tide over this situation, a concrete proposal for a women's hostel has been submitted to UGC during the IX plan.
An Old Students Association (OSA) that was formed as early as 1925, still functions in the college campus and its members have been involved in many of the activities of the college, arranging lectures by eminent personalities, awarding prizes to rank holders etc. being only a few. It has also played an instrumental role in initiating the ongoing restoration work in the campus.
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