The Loyola College of Social Sciences, Thiruvananthpuram offers postgraduate programmes in Sociology, Social Work, Social work (Disaster Management),Human Resource Management, and Counselling Psychology. Admission to these courses are undertaken strictly based on merit and as per the norms of the University of Kerala. The distribution of seats is as follows: Merit/General – 50 per cent, Community – 10 per cent, SC- 15 per cent, ST – 5 per cent and Management – 20 per cent. As a policy laid down by the Society of Jesus and manifested in the Vision, Mission, Objectives and Core Values of the institution, due consideration has been given to the physically challenged, the disadvantaged, neighbourhood community, fishing community, and the marginalized at large.

The criteria adopted and the process followed for admission to the postgraduate programmes are of two types and are delineated below:

M.A. Sociology and M.Sc. Counselling Psychology
Admission to these two courses is centralized following single window system. Applications for admission are submitted online to the University which prepares the merit list in accordance with the respective eligibility criteria. Based on this merit list and in tune with the University norms, the college grants admission to students allotted through the central allotment system of the University of Kerala.

M.S.W., M.S.W. D.M. and M.A. H.R.M.
The steps in the admission process for these courses include:

• The University notification of dates of application, Entrance Exam, Group Discussion (GD) and Interview in its website and leading dailies. Later, the college also announces the same in the leading dailies and its website
• Prospectus and application forms can be downloaded from the college website or can be collected from the college office
• Filled in applications are collected until the closing date prescribed by the University
• The Entrance Test, GD and Interview are conducted
  • The Common Admission Test (CAT; vide order EB V.2/412/2002 dtd 23.7.2002) conducted by the University assesses candidates for objective and descriptive (language) components.
  • Group Discussion is conducted in the college with the participation of subject experts appointed by the University and the nominees from the respective domains
  • All the candidates are interviewed by an interview panel consisting of the Principal, a University nominee (the Chairman of the CAT) and the Head of the Department concerned
  • A rank list is generated by the University giving weightage to the four components at the following rate:
    • Marks obtained in qualifying exam: 40% marks
    • CAT (Common Admission Test) : 30% marks
    • Group Discussion : 15% marks
    • Personal Interview : 15% marks

Kerala university Certificate/diploma courses

Library and Information Science: Certificate course in Library and Information Science, an extension work of our library, is a six-month course under the Centre for Adult Continuing and Extension Education, the University of Kerala. The objectives of the course are 1) to train the students in the basic principles of Library and Information Science including fundamental laws, library organization, management, library and information services, and library automation 2) To train persons in the day-today routine work involved in the running of small public and academic libraries 3) To train semi-professional staff of college and special libraries in the respective routine work of a modern library. The College librarian coordinates the course and engages the students as the main faculty.

Diploma Course

PG Diploma in Counselling Psychology: This is a one-year programme for students having a bachelor Degree, under the auspices of the Centre for Adult Continuing Centre for Continuing Education and Extension of the University of Kerala offers this course. The primary objective of the course is to introduce the participants to the major principles and therapeutical techniques in counselling and to develop counselling skills with mandatory practical sessions. Our students as well as alumni, who are interested, also enrol for this course.

Institutional certificate courses

Field and Community Training Services (FaCTS): This course is designed to provide students of Sociology with skills, perspectives and hands on experience in fieldwork and community involvement. The basic objectives are:

• introduce the students to the pedagogical process of sociological reflection and analysis based on empirical observation
• help the students to develop the skills of integrating theory and method;
• train the students in the basics of community organization and animation.

LiveLab for Life Skills Training: Loyola offers this as a separate programme with a twin purpose:

• to meaningfully extend its outreach wings through the students to make the younger generation learn to negotiate life in a manner that aids personal growth, personality development and self esteem so that they learn to face the impending perils and stresses in life
• make our students effective trainers in life skills through a well-designed and systematically administered ToT (Training of Trainers) in life skills training by adopting the modules proposed by the WHO.

Participatory Rural Appraisal Course: Participative learning approach forms the bedrock of our field interactions facilitating organized and systematic community involvement. A week long workshop conducted batch wise provides the students opportunity for social learning with specific perspectives in each specific situation. With field learning tools and community organizing techniques. It is designed as a certificate programme of the institution. The specific objectives of the programme includes:

• understand the concept of Participatory Rural Appraisal
• provide experiential learning through field training
• know its scope and relevance in life and career
• develop leadership skills and skills for group/team work.

Street Theatre Course: All the students undergo a week-long course cum workshop in street theatre under the guidance of the experts and practitioners from the field. At first the students are apprised of the social and personal significance and scope of the street play. Then, the students are familiarised with the various techniques of street plays by means of different exercises. Later, the students practise street plays on different themes in groups. After the practise and training, the students stage these plays in front of larger audiences in various parts of the city and neighbouring campuses.
Computer Courses
a) SIT UP – Student IT Upgradation: The goal is to equip the students with the basics of the computer in order to optimize their learning, competency building and academic training. Therefore, the objective is to enable the students to be familiar with the use of the computer in their daily curricular and extracurricular activities. All the students are
b) IT@LibLoyola. Entire PG students of the college undgo through this course in the first semester batch wise. As part of this training they are also given sessions in IT@LibLoyola, orienting them to the IT enabled facilities in the Library. They also learn to use smart boards, handicams, digital camera, LCD projector, Moodle, intranet, digital library and create and use emails.
c) Training in SPSS and Excel: These softwares are essentially required for the coding, tabulation and analysis of quantitative data in Social Sciences. The college offers this to all the students to enable them to undertake data coding and analysis in social research with ease and confidence on an yearly basis.

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