St Joseph's College for Women

A commendable milestone in the history of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Annecy in India, is the year 1958, when they started St. Joseph's College exclusively for women, the first of its kind in Visakhapatnam. In the 50s, Visakhapatnam did not have any facility for higher education of young women. So impressed were the public of Visakhapatnam with the service rendered by the Sisters that, in 1957, a group of prominent citizens requested the Sisters of St. Joseph to undertake the task of setting up an institution of higher learning for the young women of the city. The college, affiliated to Andhra University, was founded on 2nd July 1958, with six members of teaching staff and 28 students in the Pre-University course. The college was set up to serve the interests of the young women of Visakhapatnam and continues to do so with no thought of commercial gain. The emphasis then was on the teaching of Domestic Science but the college has since then diversified and developed to cater to the changing needs and aspirations of the young women. The college is now a grant-in-aid institution, with a campus area of 7.5 acres and student strength of 1250, offering four Intermediate courses, 12 Undergraduate courses in BA, B.Com and B.Sc and four Postgraduate courses. The UGC, recognising the outstanding quality of education and excellent academic record, conferred Autonomy on the College in 1987. The college is a member of the All India Association of Christian Higher Education as also the Xavier Board and utilizes the facilities of these agencies for training the faculty. The Department of French has linkages with the educational wing of the French Embassy, New Delhi and Alliance Francaise, Hyderabad. The Department of Homescience has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Community Foods and Nutrition Unit, Ministry of Human Resource Development, for training the Homescience students in the techniques of Fruit and Vegetable Preservation.