Avinashilingam - Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women

About Avinashilingam - Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women

Sri Avinashilingam Home Science College for Women was established by the great patriot and educationist Dr.T.S.Avinashilingam under the auspices of the Avinashilingam Education Trust in 1957  with  45 students. The growth of the Institution has been carefully nurtured to its current heights by the world renowned educationist and nutritionist Chancellor Dr. Rajammal P. Devadas until she passed away in  2002. It was one of the eight colleges on which autonomy was conferred by the University of Madras in June 1978 and the first of the women's colleges to get this distinction. Autonomy gave the College scope for academic freedom for innovations in teaching and research. The Government of India declared Sri Avinashilingam Home Science College for Women and Sri Avinashilingam College of Education as a Deemed University under Section 3 of the UGC Act in June 1988. The college has been renamed as Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women. The focus on the holistic development of students is carefully being channelized under the inspirational guidance of Thiru.T.K.Shanmuganandam, Chancellor and Hon. Col. Dr. Saroja Prabhakaran, Vice Chancellor of the University. The institute follows the educational ideals of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Saradamani Devi, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi and upholds a life of purity, discipline and service. A temple dedicated to Sri Ramakrishna commands the campus. Daily prayer and worship are an integral part of campus life. All the students and staff are expected to participate in the common assembly prayers. The institute functions under seven Faculties, each faculty functioning under its respective Dean. The pattern of education has been fully semesterised. The academic year is divided into two semesters, each semester having a minimum of 100 working days. The semester pattern offers to each student, individual attention of the teacher and facilitates the student's all round development. It calls for active participation of the students in the learning process.

Faculty

• Home Science.
• Science.
• Humanities.
• Education.
• Business Administration.
• Engineering and Community Education.
• Entrepreneurship Development.

Facilities

Hostels - There are six hostels,  Kalaimagal Illam,  Thirumagal Illam , Malaimagal Illam,  Malarmagal Illam , Arpana Illam  and Sarada Illam (New Hostel) with modern amenities and conveniences.  There is a separate building to house the postgraduate students and staff.  Catering in the hostel is vegetarian.  The mess is run on the dividing system.

Computing Centre - The Centre  is functioning as a technology provider to students, researchers and teaching community to fulfil their computational, technological and Internet requirements.

Facilities:

• Campus Network - The central Switch is located at the Computer Centre.  The Central servers namely Web Server, Mail Server, Proxy Server are co-located with the Central Switch. The Campus Wide Network of the University offers facilities like Internet access through 2 Mbps bandwidth connectivity, resource sharing, E-journal access provided by ERNET with 2 Mbps bandwidth.

• Campus Wide Wireless LAN (WIFi) - Wireless facility has been provided in the campus with which the users can access the internet facility anywhere in the campus. This is made possible with 45 indoor antennas and 10 outdoor access points covering the whole university.

• E-Learning Facility - The E-learning centre, established in 2006 has been sanctioned Rs.32 lakhs by the UGC. The e-content for 35 subjects under different faculties is been developed by the eminent lecturers of the university. The e-content is made available to students any time, anywhere within the campus. Computer centre hosts powerful Itanium servers, SAN storage to support the e-learning process.

• Video Conferencing Facility - The Centre provides video conferencing facilities in the University. Each video conferencing suite may be used for teaching or research purposes and offers the ability to hold conferences with many sites worldwide, including multi-venue conferences with several sites.

• Dome Camera Facility - Dome Camera is used for surveillance of functions at Thiruchitrambalam Auditorium. This dome camera provide hands free operation to the security system and full view coverage. The range is widely acclaimed for high resolution, compact size, excellent picture quality, fire proof and weatherproof attributes.

• Information KIOSK Facility - Information Kiosks is simply an information centre designed to distribute information to the students and outsiders about the University ,Courses Offered, Fee Structure, Functions etc.

• Office Automation Facility - Office Automation an intranet application to computerize and automate the activities of the Administrative Sections of the University is being executed with a grant worth of Rs.25 lakhs sanctioned by UGC. In respect of this, an application is developed in Lotus Notes/Domino to interconnect various departments in Administrative Section such as Finance Office, Controllers Office and Administrative Office. The Examination unit of Controller of Examination Section was sanctioned Rs.22 lakhs towards computerization and networking of the examination Unit, and implemented in the year 2003.

Off Campus Courses - The University offers the following courses in collaboration with Madras Medical Mission in the MMM Academy of Medical Sciences, Chennai.

1. B.Sc - Clinical Nutrition, Medical Sociology.
2. M.Sc - Clinical Nutrition.

Library - Library membership is open to the faculty members, research scholars, students and administrative staff of the university. Research scholars and faculty members from other universities can use the library facilities with the special permission.

Centre for Women's Studies - The Centre acts as a catalyst for promoting and strengthening women’s studies through teaching, research, extension, information dissemination and advocacy. The Centre has carried out the work not only in the above areas, but also in the areas of gender equity, economic and self reliance, education, women’s rights and awareness activities. The Centre has evaluated various developmental projects and has generated a wide array of resource materials for disseminating in the community. It has multidisciplinary collaboration and a close network both within and outside the University system.

The Gandhian Studies Centre - It was established under the scheme of Epoch Making Social Thinkers of India during X Plan Period (2005-06 to 2006-07). various competitions, seminars etc. are conducted in order to create awareness among the community, especially the youth, about the values and ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and to spread the message of Mahatma Gandhi among the mass with thrust on 18 point programme of Gandhian Constructive programme.

Thiruchitrambalam Auditorium - The University has two auditoriums with modern facilities. The Swami Vivekananda auditorium accommodates 500 members and the Thiruchitrambalam auditorium has a capacity to seat over 2000 members.

Health Centre - The University has a health centre and a qualified lecturer cum medical officer takes care of the students, teaching, non-teaching staff, and all the other workers in the university campus. This centre has a well-conditioned room, which has seven beds, attached bathroom and other facilities. There is a separate instrument room, which has a fully computerized ECG machine and Germi autoanalyser and other accessories required for diagnosis. Emergency drugs are also available. Conduct of free medical camps at the villages around coimbatore, organized by the NSS units of the University and community nutritious camps. Guidance to the Research scholars of science and Home science faculty in their research activities related to the field of medicine and applied nutrition.

Alumni Association - The Alumni Association of the Avinashilingam University is providing a forum for its alumni to recall their acquaintance with the institution which nurtured them through their academic life. It is also a forum to develop a life-long friendship between the alumnae and the present students of the University. Each Faculty of the university is encouraged to organize specific activities for its alumnae and garner support of the alumnae over the years. The annual meet of the alumnae association is attended by large number alumnae who attend these events to exchange reminiscences and establish lost ties with their friends and batch mates.

Saradalaya Press - The Saradalaya Press was established in the year 1971 to provide employment opportunities for the women, in the area Printing Technology. The press caters to Avinashilingam Deemed University and all its related institutions for the Job work. The press is utilized for the practical training for the B.E. Printing technology students.

N.S.S - The overall aim of National Service as envisaged earlier is to give an extension dimension to the higher education system and orient the student youth to community service while they are studying in educational institutions.  

Kinds of Programmes - There are two types of programmers.
They are:

A)  Regular NSS programmes under which students undertake various activities in the adopted villages, campuses and urban slums during weekends.

B)  Special programmes which include special activities and a special camp of 10 day duration organized in the adopted villages or urban slums on a theme given by the NSS regional centre with the involvement of the local people.

The university also has a yoga centre where yoga is taught to the NSS volunteers. Yoga promotes physical and mental health. It disciplines the mind and improves the power of concentration. Each NSS volunteer has to put in 120 hours in a year for both regular and special activities per year and 240 hours for two years. The special activities (Two / semester for 3 hours each) are arranged based on the requirements of the community. Blood donation is arranged every year as a special activity apart from others such as rallies and jathas on literacy, vigilance awareness, rain water harvesting, cleanliness campaigns and solid waste management and pulse polio sentization and creating AIDS awareness.

University Placement Cell - Placement Cell provides leadership training programmes and job opportunities. Some of the companies which recruit our students are: Hewlett Packard - Bangalore, ABN Amro - Chennai, Firstsource, Accenture - Chennai, Bajaj Allianz, KGISL - Coimbatore etc.