CMS College Kottayam
The CMS College is the first college in Kottayam, Kerala, India.It is the first college in Kerala It was started by the Church Missionary Society, England, in 1817 when no institution existed in the then-Travancore state to teach English. The Rev. Benjamin Bailey was the first principal of The College, COTTYM, as it was then called and spelt. The government welcomed the College as "a place of general education whence any demands of the state for officers to fill all departments of public service would be met".OverviewThe college has 14 departments and 47 courses. There are six research centres in the college. PhD research work is conducted in the departments of Botany, Zoology, Physics, Chemistry, English and Commerce.HistoryIn the early years, the curriculum included the study of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Mathematics, History and Geography besides English, Malayalam, Sanskrit and Syriac. In 1838, the College was shifted to the wooded hillock — the present site — commanding views of the distant Western Ghats. One of the oldest buildings in the campus is Room 52 or "Grammar School" as it was then named. The College magazine in Malayalam was started in 1864 by Principal Richard Collins, after whom the college library is named.