The Higher Education Review

With an awe-inspiring architecture, St Xavier's College in south Mumbai has always been a hotspot for filmmakers. The cute pair of Aditi and Jai from the movie Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, the memorable college life portrayed in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Main Hoon Na and numerous TV Commercials owe success to the stunning shots captured on the backdrops of St. Xavier's College. An epitome of the Indo-Gothic style of architecture, the quadrangular area behind the foyer, the sprawling campus and the magnificent arches are still in our hearts.

Now recognized as a heritage site, every nook and corner of St. Xavier's College has a memory and it connects Xavierites across all batches. World leaders like Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, The Dalai Lama and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam have visited this iconic 150-year-old campus founded by German Jesuits in 1869. Rajdeep Sardesai, Sunil Gavaskar, Vidya Balan, Zakir Hussain, Vikram Sethand Amish Tripathi are only a few among the countless Xavierites who have excelled in a vast range of areas. Partly located in St. Xavier's College campus and the St. Xavier's High School campus, the Xavier Institute of Communications (XIC) that follows the legacy of St. Xavier's Collegeis all set to celebrate its golden jubilee in a couple of years.

"At this challenging fiftieth milestone," shares Fr. Lawrence Ferrao SJ, Director of XIC, "we at XIC are in the process of planning landmark activities. The plans include, a National Media Conference, Film festivals, online courses, complete CCTV coverage, foreign university collaborations, better internships and placements, greater understanding and enhanced use of Social media."To achieve this challenging milestone,

XIC has complete support of its Management, Bombay St. Xavier's College Society Trust, which wishes the Jesuit educational motto - Moulding Persons for Others and With Others - be kept alive.

According to XIC, the challenge of educating men and women for others can only be met by reinventing strategies and methods of education in keeping with the thinking of the times. Fr. Ferrao adds, "Education is not an end in itself. Today, the Jesuit educational mission uses the technologies and methods of the times. It is drawing out the best from persons who come to the educational institutions to learn how to grow into becoming good and balanced human persons; and, at the service of humankind."

The Jesuit ethos is contained in a Latin word 'MAGIS'. It simply means - to do more than what is normally expected, which encourages the students to rise up from mediocrity in order to meet the challenges of the day with renewed zeal. The 5000+ alumni members exemplify the motto of XIC and work in tandem with the alma mater to help the ongoing XICians to find their true North. Perhaps, that is the reason why, unlike many reputed institutions in the country, XIC do not boast of any major industry tie-ups.

"For an annual intake of 250 students, XIC has employed over 150 faculty members, making an impressive faculty to student ratio of 5:3"

"Suffice us to state that," claims Dr. Jehangir B. Mistry, Dean of XIC, "out there in the world of media is strewn a generous number of former XIC greats. Their experiences at XIC help them to guide our new breed of XICians, when the time comes." XIC ensures high employability of the students by teaching the latest skills and developments in the media. Dr. Mistry adds, "During internship that normally lasts between four to six weeks, our students get a peep into the working of the industry, which they have spent a good six months learning about. As a run-up to this stage, faculty from the industry have hand-held them through and given them opportunities to seek as much clarification and information as they could possibly get."

For an annual intake of 250 students, XIC has employed over 150 faculty members, making an impressive faculty to student ration of 5:3. "We are proud of our faculty who are highly acknowledged professionals from the field itself. We term them as our 'live faculty,' i.e. industry active. The expertise and challenges that they encounter in their daily workplace comes to the fore in their classrooms," explains Dr. Mistry. The 150+ industry-experienced faculty members who also have an average of 15 years of teaching experience can make a tremendous difference in the lives of every XICian.

"With the help of such an extra-ordinary faculty team, we are able to revise syllabi on a need based process, trying to keep up-to-date with industry trends. This first-hand, down-to-earth information holds them in good stead. Companies are getting better, well-grown XIC students on a platter, so to say," opines Jehangir R. Patel, Management Advisory Board Member of XIC, who is also the Editor and Publisher of 'Parsiana' magazine. Having a sizeable national presence, most of the major players in the media industry visit the XIC campus annually, even vying to be among the front-runners. Around 70 percent of XIC students are successful in receiving Campus Placements in various Media Agencies. Some of the key placements last year were Prime Focus, Radio Mirchi, Times News Networks, Viacomm 18, Balaji, Network 18 and many more.

Today, merely imparting employable professional skills is not sufficient if we want students to make the world a better place. To achieve this noble purpose, it is imperative to impart ethical values and a moral framework to measure the newsworthiness of an event or development, whether one is writing on the disadvantaged, differently abled, or the successful and influential. "At the XIC, we attempt to educate our students on the practical, theoretical and moral aspect of Media. If the media houses who eventually hire them and the public who view their stories believe we have done so, we would have fulfilled our obligations as a reputed media institute," concludes Fr. Ferrao.