Page 39 - EW May 2025

Just as the rankings league table
of non-autonomous colleges has been
dominated by St. Stephen’s College,
Delhi, for the past five years, the
league table of private autonomous
colleges has been dominated by St.
Xavier’s College, Mumbai (SXM)
for the past quinquennium. In 2025-
26, the 2,100 knowledgeable respon-
dents interviewed by the Bengaluru-
based market research company AZ
Research Partners Pvt. Ltd, have again
voted SXM India’s #1 private autono-
mous college with best scores under
all six parameters of higher education
excellence including the critical pa-
rameters of faculty competence and
curriculum and pedagogy.
Dr. Rajendra Shinde, the cheer-
ful and accessible principal of SXM,
is delighted this vintage college Dr. Moushumi Datta (left): experiential & participative pedagogies
(estb.1869), which has 4,194 top-score
school-leavers on its muster rolls, is astrophysics and bioinformatics. Si- College, Kolkata has lost ground
ranked India’s #1 private autonomous multaneously, we are implementing and is ranked #5 (#4) jointly with the
college for the sixth consecutive year. NEP 2020 to provide academic flex- Nagindas Khandwala College,
“Since I was appointed principal ibility and multidisciplinary learning Malad (W), Mumbai, awarded a
in 2018, it has been a privilege and to our students. Autonomy gave us huge promotion from #8 in 2024-25.
a challenge to uphold and advance a wings, and we’ve used them not just Dr. Moushumi Datta, principal
legacy built over 156 years. Sustaining to fly, but to soar new pathways for of Nagindas Khandwala College
the India #1 position year after year is higher education in the country. Next, (NKC), conferred autonomy in 2016,
no small feat. Yet it’s a collective tri- the St. Xavier’s management is delib- is “proud and grateful” to EW sample
umph. This honour should accrue to erating on the possibility of accelerat- respondents for NKC’s promotion to
our talented faculty, supportive man- ing attainment of university status,” top table.
agement, and vibrant, creative student says Shinde, who after a brilliant 42- “This promotion from #8 to #5
community,” he says. year innings at SXM including seven this year means a lot to us because it’s
According to Shinde, SXM’s high years as principal, is set to retire this the outcome of the hard work of our
scores under all six EW parameters month. students, faculty and staff to improve
are the “outcome of concerted ef- SXM’s dominance of top table under all parameters. This promotion
fort”. “Since SXM was conferred au- apart, there’s been a major rearrange- will inspire us to keep improving to
tonomous status in 2010 — the first ment of seating order. This year’s offer the best undergrad ASC educa-
ASC college of Mumbai University to sample respondents have promoted tion to our students. I am especially
be granted autonomy — we made it Mount Carmel College (MCC), pleased with our high scores under
our mission to design holistic and in- Bengaluru — which last June turned curriculum and pedagogy and place-
terdisciplinary curricula; introduced co-ed after being an all-women’s in- ments. This is because during the past
several skill-based programmes to stitution for 76 years — to #2 (#3 in few years, we have focused on design-
enhance students employability, and 2024-25) and the #1 ASC college in ing well-structured and contemporary
made our Social Involvement Pro- the southern state of Karnataka. curricula aligned with industry needs
gramme mandatory for every stu- MCC’s elevation has pushed the ri- and corporate workplaces through
dent to develop social sensitivity that val St. Joseph’s College (Autono- introduction of experiential and par-
is the essence of Jesuit education. mous), Bengaluru to #3 (#2). Nar- ticipative pedagogies. Since NKC was
More important, as an autonomous see Monjee College of Commerce conferred autonomous status in 2017,
institution, we introduced a range of & Economics, Mumbai, also we have launched several industry-
innovative postgraduate and diploma ranked #3 and Mithibai College, driven programmes including B.Sc in
programmes in new disciplines such Mumbai at #4 have interchanged finance and analytics, artificial intel-
as public policy, big data analytics, their 2024-25 ranks. St. Xavier’s ligence and machine learning, and

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