Mar Thoma College

Mar Thoma College, Tiruvalla

മാർ തോമ കോളേജ്, തിരുവല്ല
Motto in English	Education par Excellence and Educated for the Society
Type	Trust
Established	1952 (1952)
Affiliation	Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar
Principal	Dr. Jacob K.
Manager	Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan
Academic staff	80
Administrative staff	45
Students	1800
Location	Tiruvalla, Kerala, India 9°24′11″N 76°34′48″E / 9.40306°N 76.58000°E / 9.40306; 76.58000Coordinates: 9°24′11″N 76°34′48″E / 9.40306°N 76.58000°E / 9.40306; 76.58000
Campus	Tiruvalla
Nickname	MTC
Affiliations	Mahatma Gandhi University, UGC
Website	Official Website

Mar Thoma College is an institution of higher education located in Tiruvalla, a town in Pathanamthitta district, in the south Indian state of Kerala. The college is affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University and offers 12 under graduate, 11 post graduate and 7 doctoral programmes. The college holds an A Grade rating with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) since 2005.

Mar Thoma College was founded by the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar in 1952 as a junior college offering two intermediate courses with Alexander Mar Thoma Metropolitan, the then head of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church as its founding principal. It was affiliated to the University of Kerala at its inception. In 1955, the college was upgraded as a regular college when two under graduate courses were introduced and by 1966, the college started offering post graduate courses. When Mahatma Gandhi University was established in 1983, the college was brought under its affiliation and two years later, two of the departments of the college, English and Zoology, were recognized as research centres to commence doctoral programmes. It was in 1998 that the college started the Comparative Literature Research and Study Centre (CLRSC) for advanced research in language studies. The same year, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council extended accreditation to the college, the first college in Kerala to receive the NAAC accreditation. The college was reaccredited with A Grade in 2005 and the central government accreditation agency retained the grading at A during its reassessment in 2012. The Government of Kerala decided to phase off the erstwhile Pre-Degree Courses in 1997 through the Pre-degree Course (Abolition) Act in accordance with the National Education Policy, and in 2000, all the pre-degree courses at Mar Thoma College were delinked from the college and integrated with the Marthoma Residential School, a higher secondary school run by the Mar Thoma Educational Agency.