St Thomas College Palai Kottayam

Founded in 1950, St. Thomas College, Pala has to its credit more than 60years of distinguished, service in the field of higher education in the state of Kerala sending out many graduate maxima cum laude to carve out their destinies in diverse spheres. The idea of establishing an arts and science college at Pala had been dormant for a long time in the minds of the Roman Catholic community of the area. The year 1950 was also remarkable in that, true to Taine’s dictum, man, moment and milieu conspired to make history, the Diocese of Palai was born and Fr. Mani Sebastian Vayalilkalapura, president of the college committee, was made the first Bishop of the diocese and the Patron of the college. Veteran leaders like Mr. George Thomas Kottukapally, Mr. Cherian Kappen, Mr. R.V.Thomas, Mr. K.M.Chandy etc joined hands with the bishop in founding the college for fulfilling the educational dreams of the hardworking agrarian people of Meenachil. The sanction for starting the college had, in fact, been obtained from the erstwhile Travancore University two years earlier and a committee for the construction of the college building had been started. We were singularly fortunate in having Dr. P.J. Thomas, the renowned economist, and advisor and representative to the U.N of the Govt. of India, as the first Principal of the college. Prof. V.J. Joseph, who was appointed Vice Principal, was also an academician endowed with a vision of the college growing like the mighty king of the forest, an evergreen oak- with its branches reaching out far and wide. Between 1950 and ’60, apart from the intermediate course, UG courses in Mathematics, Botany, Economics, Chemistry, Zoology, Politics and postgraduate courses in Hindi, Politics and Statistics were started. At present the college is situated in a lush green campus with a complex of more than half a dozen multi-storeyed buildings accommodating all class rooms, a modern library, laboratories, staff and students’ hostels and having over 10 acres of fields exclusively ear marked for sports and games along with a swimming pool.