The Higher Education Review

Knowledge is the key to confront competitive challenges. Alongside, knowledge instills an adequate sense of compassion and sympathy with endless thoughts for surviving the toughest days. It also helps to become ideal citizens. It was with this sublime vision in mind that Nirmala Group of Institutions (NGI) came into being at Chalakudy in 1954. From the day of its inception, the institution is promoting innovation and entrepreneurship with strong industrial and other stakeholder collaborations. NGI has created a world-class teaching and learning environment in an efficient and sustainable manner. The dedicated effort to provide value-added education to inculcate a sense of humanism and deep concern for the well-being of others conjoins with NGI's mission for contribution towards the nation-building process. It ensures that the quality of teaching and learning is placed in conformity with well-designed benchmarks at every stage of dissemination of knowledge in all its institutions. The faculties are always involved in guaranteeing top-level results from the students.

Apart from providing updated knowledge, skill enhancement is another field in which NGI emphasizes strengthening the employability prospects of the students. The NGI team gives utmost care in appropriate placement for all eligible students. Also, as dropout rates are quite visible in Indian higher education, NGI takes special precautions for this by reaching out to the students at personal and family levels. In addition, the students stay engrossed towards learning because of well planned, closely monitored academic and co-curricular activity hallmarks stipulated by NGI. While NGI is famous for quality teaching and learning, its excellent infrastructure and essential skill development projects render the necessary edge for learning at this institution. B.A English Language and Literature, B.Sc. Computer Science, Bachelor of

Computer Application, B.Sc. Food Technology, Bachelor of Travel and Tourism Management, Bachelor of Tourism and Hotel Management and B.Sc. Costume and Fashion Designing.

"To deliver these facilities to all the aspiring learners, Nirmala College of Arts and Science offers freeships and scholarships to the meritorious as well as the eligible students belonging to the marginalized sections of the society"

The curricula of these academic programs are crafted keeping abreast of the industry needs and adhering to the job market skilling. The students receive knowledge and skill-based training in the areas that are preferred in modern-day society. Moreover, Nirmala College of Arts and Science stays abreast of the changing working patterns in the industrial sphere. It helps the college administration to alter the curriculum accordingly.

The students learn at the modern computer labs, language laboratory, through E-Journals and E-Books from the Inflibnet, to High Tech Classrooms. With great dexterity and finesse, the college has trained its faculties to adopt a holistic approach as regards pedagogical methods: a harmonious synergy between the classical and modern methodologies like classroom teaching, lecture notes, follow-up actions, remedial classes, skill practice, presentations, role plays, quiz hours, social activities and healthy competitions to hone the students' knowledge base. Teacher level quality is maintained by performance monitoring by peers and department heads, stringent student evaluation of teachers and updating of knowledge base through seminars and workshops by experts. Furthermore, Nirmala College of Arts and Science has modern playfields and sports equipment for imparting aggressive training in physical fitness and other related areas of the educational domain.

To deliver all these facilities to the aspiring learners, Nirmala College of Arts and Science offers freeships and scholarships to students belonging to marginalized sections of the society and other deserving categories. The arts and science college facilitates the scholarships offered by external agencies to deserving

students by timely intervention. Some of the industrial collaborations that Nirmala College of Arts and Science has carved out in its journey where students receive concrete practical training are CIAL, Flowers Channel, Sahitya Academy, Club FM, Kitex, Anna, Lunar, Oushadhi, Eastern Masala, Modern Bread, Hedge, Al-Hind Travels, TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Jet Airways, Indigo, Air India and Gulf Air. In these industries, the students get ample opportunities to acquire hands-on training during their visits.

"Besides academic performance, our students excel at intercollegiate fests in Fine Arts and other cultural and literary items, in sports events such as Kabaddi, Football, Cricket, and Athletics. They have won prizes at zonal level arts fests of the University of Calicut and other intercollegiate competitions," explains Mr. Sajeev Vattoly, the NGI Chairman. He goes on to say about the faculty development initiatives, "Faculties are encouraged to attend national and international workshops at other HEIs. At the NGI premises, seminars and workshops are also conducted with the tie-up companies. We encourage and support the teachers to take up Faculty Development Programs so that they stay updated with the frontiers of their subject knowledge profile." Nirmala College of Arts and Science is completely focusing in recent days on becoming a job-based quality higher education provider at national and international levels.

The 65 years of experience has already made NGI a top of the range destination for pursuing advanced studies in Engineering, Pharmacy, Management, Polytechnic, Arts and Science programmes. Nirmala College of Arts and Science is one of its major affiliates that students look up to for taking up higher level academic programmes in the newly emerging branches of learning in the arts, science and commerce disciplines tailor-made to meet global industry requirements. Considering the vast network of tie-ups with major universities in the United Kingdom, France, Canada and New Zealand, Nirmala College of Arts and Science is marching towards becoming a globally known hub for higher education in India.