St. Joseph's College for Women

St. Joseph's College for Women was founded on June 21, 1948 by Sister Mary Alban, a member of the Religious Congregation - The Institute of the Daughters of the Cross. Pakistan had just been created and the new nation required more institutions for the promotion of education. The College was set up to promote and accelerate the higher education of the women of Karachi. It was started in the already existing St. Joseph's Convent School by making a few of its classrooms available for the College students. Sister Mary Alban, the founder of the College, was appointed its first Principal and the College was affiliated with the Sindh University. With the students already present, Sister Mary Alban began looking for a site on which to build the College. On acquiring the premises, she asked Rev. Bro Hilary Lardenoye OFM, a well-renowned architect, to design the College building which he did blending the old and new, eastern and western style of architecture. The building was constructed with the generous donations, albeit small sums of money, of friends of the Daughters of the Cross in Karachi and abroad, through student dramatic performances and a loan of Rs. 200,000. On 13 July 1951, the newly-constructed College building was blessed by the Most Rev. Alcuin Van Miltenburg OFM, Archbishop of Karachi and Apostolic delegate to Pakistan and officially opened by Begum Baig the wife of the Administrator of Karachi. As Karachi had by now its own University, the College was affiliated in 1951 with the University of Karachi.