History of Colleges

North Bengal St Xavier’s College

North Bengal St Xavier’s College, a self-financed degree college, affiliated to the University of North Bengal, and was established in July 2007 by the Darjeeling Jesuits of North Bengal, in a temporary building in the premises of Jisu Niketan School, Matigara, with Fr Cherian Padiyara as the first Principal. 

The two main objectives of the college with a two-tier system are (i) to provide quality education to the youth of Darjeeling, Sikkim, the entire region of North Bengal and the North East, and (ii) to develop and empower the marginalized sections of North Bengal, particularly the tribal population of the tea plantations and the scheduled castes through quality skills for entry into the job market with self-confidence.

The college which made its beginning with one hundred students in 2007 has now above one thousand two hundred students from the Dooars, Darjeeling, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Delhi, Bhutan, and Nepal. The classes were shifted to the new college building at Rajganj, Dist Jalpaiguri, in July 2008. The college has a campus of 25.47 acres of land for its future expansion and development of infrastructural facilities.

The courses offered by the college are Honors in English, Sociology, Geography, History, Hindi, Computer Science, Microbiology, Zoology, Accountancy, Management and BBA. The elective subjects taught in the college are Education, Political Science, Botany, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Computer Hardware and Software, Spoken English, and various other skill based courses are offered by the Community College. 

The college has a Boys’ Hostel that can accommodate one hundred and fifty students. The Girls’ hostel is owned and administered by the Holy Cross Sisters.

In the immediate future, the college plans to put up another academic block for new academic, skill based and job oriented courses to make the institute a centre of excellence with autonomous status. 

St Joseph’s College, Darjeeling

The College Section affiliated to the Calcutta University in 1927 made its beginning with ten students by offering basically the Intermediate Courses in the School Premises. It was in 1949 that the college got official recognition to offer degree courses in B.A. and B.Sc. With the establishment of the University of North Bengal in 1962, the college was delinked from the Calcutta University and was granted affiliation to the University of North Bengal.  In 1963 with the growing number of students, the College Section was completely shifted from the school premises to the new site where the college is now in the 87th year of its service to the locality with one thousand, seven hundred students. St Joseph's College, University Department, as it stands today, is the expression of the vision of Fr Maurice Stanford, who was the Rector in the 1950’s.  A three storey L - shaped building, with the novel undulating roof of the front wing was the work of Fr. J. Carsi, Bro. Paul Robin and Bro. Francis Drobnic. The college campus is 6.260 acres in size today.

The College offers Honours in English, Nepali, Economics, History, Political Science, Sociology, Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Zoology, Botany, and Accountancy.  The self-financed courses offered by the college are Mass Communication and Journalism (Hons), Geography (Hons), Computer Science (Hons), Microbiology (Hons), Masters in English, Computer Applications, and Business Administration. 

There is a permanent teaching staff of fifty, of whom twenty-two are Ph.D. holders, four with M.Phil degree and five on the way to get their Ph.D. With the strength of such qualified people, the College hopes that research and publications will get top priority in the immediate future besides the focus on academic improvement and collaboration among the Jesuit Institutions in the Province. 

The college has a Boys’ hostel and a Girls’ hostel with a capacity of one hundred students each. The Girls’ hostel is managed and administered by the Sisters of Cluny.

Loyola College Of Education

Loyola College of Education, owned and managed by the Darjeeling Jesuits of North Bengal, is situated at Namchi, the South District of Sikkim on a sprawling, picturesque campus of some 4.3660 hectares of land at the foothills of the Himalayas. It was started in response to the request of the Government of Sikkim.

The concept of Loyola College of Education in Sikkim was originally conceived by Fr Cherian Padiyara, the then Regional Superior of the Darjeeling Jesuits. The vision was subsequently concretized, and professionally as well as aesthetically designed by Mr Kiran Rasaily. Its foundation stone was blessed by Fr Peter Hans Kolvenbach, the then Superior General of the Society of Jesus, on March 03, 1993. The construction of the college building was supervised and got ready for use by June 1994 by Fr Giles Goluckmu and the first batch of students for B.Ed. was admitted in July 1994. 

The college in the beginning was affiliated to the University of North Bengal but in 2007 with the establishment of the Sikkim Central University, it was delinked from the university of North Bengal and granted affiliation to the Sikkim Central University. 

The college aims to prepare committed, conscientious, competent, and compassionate school teachers with a sense of mission. Hostels for girls and boys are located in the campus itself. 

The college administration has a plan to start M.Ed. and M.A. (Education) programs under the IGNOU from 2014. Beside these, the college plans to set up, on a priority basis in a phased manner, a language laboratory, smart classrooms and E-library. 

Xavier Sangeetanjali

The word “Sangeetanjali” means offering of oneself through Music to the Divine (God). The Darjeeling Jesuits of North Bengal included in their apostolic priorities in 2006 a prime concern for the promotion of values, depth, and transcendence of the culture of tribal people from the hills and plains through their folk dance and music. This was thought of in the context of contemporary secular forces threatening the indigenous cultures. So to recover a reverence for such cultures and help the youth of today to experience a sense of the divine mystery in their own culture a Centre for Music and Dance was thought of and a Centre was built on top of Jisu Niketan School at Matigara in 2007.

Initially the Darjeeling Jesuits started the programs as a part of the Community College of North Bengal St Xavier’s College until Fr Kalyan Tirkey, S.J. and Fr Edward Arokiaraj, S.J., the graduates in Classical Music and Dance from Baroda University, were ready to take up this ministry. They started the classes in 2008 with 15 students at Shanti Sadan, Siliguri. But when the numbers began to grow, the classes were shifted to a centre that was built on top of the Jesu Niketan School at Matigara after the Degree College was shifted to Rajganj.

Xavier Sangeetanjali - a College of Performing Art and Culture, at Matigara, was inaugurated by Padmabhushan Pt. Chhannulal Mishra, a great vocalist from Varanasi, and blessed by Rt. Rev. Thomas D’Souza, the Bishop of the Diocese of Bagdogra. The College is affiliated to Prayag Sangeet Samiti, a Music University at Allahabad. Today there are nearly 300 students learning Hindustani Vocal Music, South Indian (Bharatnatyam) and North Indian Classical Dance (Kathak) and various other instrumentals.