Bishop Heber College's Review and Verdict

Campus at a Glimpse

Founded as a religious minority educational institution, Bishop Heber College is located in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1966 with a mission to cater to the members of the church of South Indians and other Christians. However, Bishop Heber College admits students irrespective of their faith and religion. Accredited with a NAAC A++ grade, the college proves its overall excellence with the presence of a well-maintained infrastructure, adequate facilities, a variety of academic offerings and ample exposure opportunities. 

The college is recognised as an Institution of National Repute with a heritage of 57 years. It offers 29 undergraduate courses, 22 postgraduate courses, 10 M.Phil and 17 PhD programmes across arts, science, commerce, management, computer applications, social work and vocational studies. The commerce courses are offered in collaboration with the ACCA, TCS-Academic Interface, CA/ CMA Association and National Stock Exchange and science courses are funded under the DBT-STAR scheme and DST-FIST. Apart from this, several other add-on courses are offered through academic partnerships with external agencies and experts such as Microsoft. 

On the flip side, students on multiple forums have shared dissatisfaction with the quality of teaching in the ‘self-financed’ section of the college. Let’s understand the issue in detail in this article along with other criteria such as Bishop Heber College’s placement, internships, courses, ranking, faculty and diversity for comprehensive understanding. 

Bishop Heber College NIRF Ranking: Good to Great! 

Given below are the rankings of Bishop Heber College by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). 

Our Take:

Bishop Heber College has consistently ranked among the top 50 colleges in India by NIRF. It was featured twice at 43rd position in 2022 and 2023 and jumped to 34th position in 2023. This giant leap of 9 ranks indicates improvement across all parameters defined by NIRF - Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR) Research and Professional Practice (RP) Outreach and Inclusivity (OI). 

Bishop Heber College Academia & Batch Size

Academic offerings:

Bishop Heber College course list includes 15+ courses at UG, PG and Doctoral levels mentioned in detail below. 

Additionally, the college offers a wide range of Diploma and Certificate programmes such as DAMLT, DBAT, PGDC, PGDB and Certificate in Web Designing/ Cloud Computing/ French/ Hindi/ Food Production, etc to foster skill development amongst students. 

Curriculum:

The college has adopted the Choice-Based Credit System (CBCS) and outcome-based learning mandated by UGC. It claims to have an enriched curriculum matching international standards. The following are major highlights of Bishop Heber College’s curriculum. 

• Core and Elective Courses
• Field Projects, In-Plant Training and Internships
• Language and Skill Development Programmes
• Extension Activities
• Add-on Programmes 
• Co-curricular and Extracurricular Activities

While going through the feedback of students on Quora, we analysed that students preferred the ‘Aided’ programmes over the ‘Self-financed’ ones due to differences in faculty and teaching methods. Apart from this, students have praised the curriculum and opportunities with practical exposure provided by the college. 

Course-Wise Batch Size:

Our Take:

The academia of Bishop Heber College is a decent mix of conventional and non-conventional courses. Students have options to choose trendy courses such as B.Sc in Aviation, B.Com in Strategic Finance and BBA in Aviation and Ground Handling. Moreover, the curriculum is revised regularly to cater to the needs of changing times. The college tries to maintain high academic standards and prioritises outcome-based learning which is applaudable. 

Furthermore, the high intake of students doesn’t affect the student-teacher ratio which is 23:1 as per the SSR 2023 report. This is a good indicator of institutes' preference towards providing individual learning and attention to the students.

Bishop Heber College Infrastructure

Here are the details for Bishop Heber College's infrastructure based on the reliable resource, SSR 2023 report.

Classroom: The institution has 144 well-maintained classrooms equipped with ICT facilities. However, air-conditioning facilities aren’t available in the classrooms. 

Auditorium/ Seminar Halls/ Labs: There are 12 ICT-enabled seminar halls, 20 science labs, 20 computer labs, 14 research labs and 2 special computer labs for advanced research. 

Library: Bishop Heber College has a fully-automated library with many books and other reading materials. The library has a subscription to N-List, DELNET, SAGE journals and other e-reading resources. 

Internet: The college provides a 24x7 Wi-Fi facility with 200 Mbps internet speed. The students we connected with shared issues regarding poor connectivity at the campus. 

Hostel: Bishop Heber College has 12 hostels in total, 5 for males and 7 for females. Students on Quora complained about the poor quality and limited variety of food provided at the hostel mess. Other concerns flagged by the students include shared washroom facilities, scarcity of water, cleaning of rooms and permission policies. 

Sports Facilities: The college has an indoor stadium for Badminton, Volleyball, Kabaddi, Handball, Table Tennis and Yoga along with outdoor sports facilities for Athletics, Cricket, Football, etc.  

Activities: The college conducts extracurricular activities through 30 student clubs in cultural, sports and social areas. Students have confirmed that a lot of extension activities are held through NCC, NSS, etc. to groom the overall personality of students and to create awareness about social issues prevailing in the communities.

Cafe/ Cafeteria: The campus has a canteen and cafeteria offering quality snacks and food items at reasonable prices. 

Our Take:

As per our research, Bishop Heber College provides adequate infrastructure and facilities to the students. The campus is lively and vibrant with various activities hosted throughout the year. However, there are strict hostel policies, especially for female students. They are not allowed to go out after 6:30 pm and need written permission from the warden to go outside the campus. Also, hostels lack privacy due to the limited availability of rooms with single accommodation and attached washroom facilities. To counter these problems, the college has been building new hostels but other issues still need attention. A few of them are poor internet access across the campus and excessive discipline. 

Bishop Heber College Internships and Placements 

Placement and internship assistance is given by Bishop Heber College. The college has a placement and training division that conducts various training activities and internship and placement drives. 

Internships:

The students of Bishop Heber College undertake internships during the last year of their programme to earn extra credits. The internship duration can range from 1 month to 6 depending on the contract period. Moreover, the college has collaboration and partnership with external agencies and industry experts who provide internship and project opportunities. As per the SSR 2023 report, 78% of students undertook internships/ field projects in the year 2022. 

Course-wise Placements:

Given below are the placement statistics of Bishop Heber College according to the NIRF 2023 report. 

Top Recruiters:

TCS, Infosys, Sutherland Global Services, Kaevy, Internshala, Freelancer, Tirupur Auditing Office, etc. 

Our Take:

The placement rate of Bishop Heber College ranges between 35% to 56% for different programmes. While the placement for PG courses can be considered fine, it is on the downside for UG and PG Integrated courses. Also, the median salary offered isn’t much! The students are provided with fewer job choices and opportunities, mostly in local or mass recruiting companies. While they can apply for off-campus opportunities, Bishop Heber College needs to onboard more global-level companies for hiring graduates across all programmes. Allegedly, a student must have 75% marks if they want to appear in placements and can't participate in interviews if he has already been selected by 2 companies. These rules should be relaxed given the current status of placements here. 

Bishop Heber College Diversity & Demographics

Given below are the highlights of Bishop Heber College demographics and gender representation based on the NIRF 2023 report. 

Home State Vs Other States’ Students:

Male vs Female students:

Quick Analysis:

Our Take:

Based on the above data, Bishop Heber College has meagre inter-state diversity standing at 1.6% and high local diversity accounting for 98.4%. The global diversity is negligible at 0.05%. This represents the college’s popularity among students of Tamil Nadu and low reach at inter-state and global levels. Moreover, the gender ratio is quite balanced with 44.7% of female students and 55.3% of male students. 

Bishop Heber College Faculty/College Administration & Management

According to the SSR 2023 report, Bishop Heber College has 552 professors comprising 333 PhD holders, 162 M.Phil degree holders and 56 PG degree holders. Further division is given below. 

Based on students' feedback on Quora, the faculty for the government-aided section are appointed by the government and are knowledgeable, experienced and well-appreciated by students. On the other hand, the faculty members for the self-finance section are hired privately and lack sufficient teaching skills and experience. 

Our Take:

It appears there is a wide gap based on academic merits, knowledge and experience between the faculty hired by the government and the college. While the faculty of the government-aided courses are well-qualified, the faculty of the self-finance section seems not at par with the former. Due to this, the majority of students wish to opt for aided programmes over self-financed programmes. The colleges should try to fill this gap by hiring teachers who are as good as those in aided programmes. 

Bishop Heber College Location

Bishop Heber College is located at Vayalur Road, Puthur, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. Students can easily visit the college using local transportation. The ‘Puthur Nal Road’ bus stop is closest to the college and the Tiruchirappalli International Airport is located about 10 km away from the campus. 

Bishop Heber College: Expectation vs Reality CLD Verdict!

Bishop Heber College has justified its status as a “College of Excellence” awarded by the University Grant Commission in April 2017 for 5 years. It not only offers quality education but also looks after the exposure opportunities provided to the students. Moreover, its affordable fee structure makes it more sought-after. Bishop Heber College charges separate fees for aided streams and self-financed streams. The fees range from INR 4 K to 9 K for the aided section and between INR 11 K to 53.5 K per semester for the self-financed section. Apart from the MBA fee which is INR 53,500 K per sem, fees for all other courses of aided and self-financed sections appear affordable. That being said, the college needs to make its placement assistance more robust and hire teaching staff for non-aided programmes who can impart values and education similar to aided programmes.  

Overall, Bishop Heber College is a decent choice for students of Tamil Nadu looking for affordable and quality education.