St. John's College, Agra


St. John's College, is a constituent college of the Agra University, located in agra. It is a Christian college under Church of North India and widely regarded one of the oldest, beautiful and prestigious colleges in India, producing a line of distinguished alumni. it was established by Church Mission Society to agra. The college admits both undergraduates and postgraduates and awards degree in liberal arts, Commerce, Sciences, Business Administration and education under the purview of Agra University.
The college was built in honor of John the Apostle, one of the Twelve apostles of Jesus.

History

St. John's College, Agra, was established in 1850 by the Church Missionary Society of England, along with Agra C.M.S. Association, and its first principal was Rev. Thomas Valpy French, a fellow of University College, Oxford. In 1869–70, it had 297 students, out of which 199 were Hindus, 76 Muslims, and 22 Christians.
From 1862 to 1888, the college was affiliated to the University of Calcutta and till 1927, to the University of Allahabad. In 1927, when Agra University came into existence, the college became affiliated to it, and its principal Dr. A.W. Davies became the first Vice-Chancellor of the newly formed University. Since 1893, the college has offered post-graduate courses.
The college celebrated its centenary in 1952; on this occasion a new wing of the college was built. The foundation stone of the Centenary Wing was laid by Bharat Ratna Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, former president of India in 1957 and was inaugurated by the prime pinister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, on 9 October 1959.
Presently the principal of the college is Dr. Shailendra Pratap Singh.

Vision

To draw inspiration from the teaching of Jesus Christ and to engage in the development of God-given intellectual, social, creative, ethical and learning potentials in students and to kindle in them a passion for academic excellence and holistic growth, so that they will be adequately equipped for serving the humanity, with professional competencies, compassionate hearts and humane value.

Present composition

St. John's College is a co-educational institution of higher learning with men-women ratio of 45:55. it is regarded as good college of Northern India. the college offers courses under five faculties – three in regular and two in self finance mode. The college has sixteen post-graduate departments with facilities for research and three under-graduate departments. the college also runs five self-financed recognized courses viz, B.Com., B.B.A., B.Ed., M.A., postgraduate diploma in clinical psychology and two partially self-financed degree programmes in B.Sc. with industrial chemistry, and B.Sc. with computer science.
The college has always striven to admit students and select teachers from all communities and from all parts of India. It also admits a small number of students from overseas. The college offers a scholarships and awards to meritorious students. These are endowed over a period of time.

Campus

The college is situated on a large and well-known campus in Agra; on the occasion of its centenary, a new wing of the college was built. The foundation stone of the Centenary Wing was laid by Bharat Ratna Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, former president of India, in 1957 and was inaugurated by the prime minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, on 9 October 1959. Facilities for a number of sports are provided for on college campus. The annexe, the ladies common room, provide facilities for indoor sport and recreation. The chapel of invitation is open to all members for worship and meditation.
Residence halls
The college's halls of residence are spread across two blocks, named for former principals, as given below:
The St. John's college has a central library with over 90,000 books, a reading room open access and a reference section for post-graduate and research student, most of the departments have departmental library for post-graduate students.
The college library also provides INFLIBNET facility to the faculty members, research scholars and post graduate students to consult more than 80,000 e-journals and e-books.

Admission

The college has its own selection process. the college has an online application process where prospective applicants are expected to fill in their interests and academic achievements. the colleges releases a list for students selected to an interview.

Academics

St. John's offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in:
St. John's offers one Ph.D. in science and commerce. Students can take vocational courses in foreign trade, advertising and sales promotion, insurance, computer science, demography, yoga psychology and mental health and communicative English. The college runs a study centre of Indira Gandhi National Open University.

Student societies

Students club and societies have always played an important role in the life of the college, and seen as vital to student development. many academic subject has a society which sponsors lectures and discussions. the popular extra curricular societies engage in activities concerned with debating, dramatics, photography, social services, quizzing, 'dumcherade', 'antakshri' etc. many societies i.e.; BOTSO, CHEMSO, regularly invite distinguished visitors to address and join issue with students on various topical issues.
The various societies in colleges are:-
, grave of Rev. Dr. Arthur Whitcliffe Davies in the Cathedral Cloisters
St. John's College Agra has produced many distinguished personalities, including one President of India, two Governor of states, one nominee for the Nobel prize, Indian ambassador to United States of America and many IAS, IFS and IRS officers.
Mr.Rameshwar Nath Zutshi, Editor of "The Leader" a leading English daily Newspaper from Allahabad.
Mr. Rajeshwar Nath Zutshi, educationist, awarded Padam Shri by the Government of India, Principal of "The Daly College" at Indore also the Mayor of Indore.

Notable presidents